A Case of You

In the age of social media, dating has become infinitely more complicated, and the ability to pore over your loved one's Facebook profile or Twitter feed to find those little idiosyncracies that make them unique is something we've probably all experienced. But what happens when you start taking it a bit too far?

Written by Justin Long (who also stars), A Case of You follows struggling writer Sam, whose daily trips to a local coffee shop have left him infatuated with the free-spirited Birdie (Evan Rachel Wood). Unfortunately, Birdie loses her job before Sam works up the nerve to ask her out, but never fear - with a little bit of Facebook stalking, Sam can not only find out where she'll be next, he can also begin molding himself into her ideal match.

Yes, it sounds more than a little creepy, but Long is charming and charismatic enough to keep us interested, and Sam's willingness to put himself into incredibly awkward situations in order to impress Birdie result in some humorous exchanges. There are also a few laugh-out-loud moments that come courtesy of Keir O'Donnell as Sam's roommate and Peter Dinklage as a flamboyantly sassy barista.

While amusing at times, A Case of You doesn't stray far from the typical romantic comedy template: boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy learns important life lesson and tries to win girl back. The chemistry between Long and Wood is believable, and watching them together is far from boring, but the film never aspires to be more than a paint-by-numbers affair. It's a decent first effort for screenwriter Long, but certainly nothing that reinvents the genre.

-- Brent Hankins, www.nerdrep.com

This is a pretty good movie if there was an app to write movies using a vast template of clichés, stereotypes and characters and scenes you've seen a few thousand times before. It's not awful and its very well put together. Almost flawless. Technically it's like the robot version of a movie. And without irony, snarky, self criticism either. And to be fair it has some pretty funny small moments. And in a way it's refreshing to see a technically soulless perfect execution of an idea in an era of awful indie anarchist hipster junk still doing bad sound, shaky cam, weak lighting and an incoherent story.

But if you're looking for either something very good or new or interesting or even high drama, sitcom level high drama then no. You'll be disappointed. The machine isn't that sophisticated or adventurous for that. And that's a good thing because it will be entirely predictable, like comfort food.

"A Case of You" is worth singling out if some great flicks like "Ruby Sparks" made you dig for more. Though, this movie is sort of reliving the dumb formula from the comparison. Okay, an honest opinion is that viewers will be fractured by the plot's predictability, but I'm buying. That doesn't prevent me from saying that the film is one of the sweet romantic comedies bolstered with energy from its young cast ensemble of bright comedians. I dunno, but call me crazy.

Sam (Justin Long) is a well-known author that suffers a block to his next book. An inspiration is what he totally needs, suffice to say. Until she meets the cute blondie coffee gal named Birdie (Evan Rachel Wood), he develops a quirky obsession. As soon as Sam learns that she was fired for frequent tardiness at work, he decided to stalk her Facebook account and decisively scan her likes, interests, and routines. Sam is the ideal manly stalker. And one by one he tries to learn what she likes to do: Play the guitar, read Darwinian, and rock climbing. This is in no doubt a rudimentary principle of we follow in order to woo our special someone, and I admire the film for having the guts to deliver it regardless of being stereotyped.

The chemistry between Long and Wood feels cheesy but endearing. Though, their kismet might be unfairly familiar but at least it's sugar-coated with their funny moment and both make it work. We also get the most of Keir O'Donnell as Sam's buddy roommate Eliot especially from his late- bloomer taboo jokes therein. And the same goes to Peter Dinklage as a gay barista and Brendan Fraser as Birdie's ex Tony. Too bad Dinklage and Fraser is alarmingly hilarious they deserve more time frame than Busy Philips and Vince Vaughn (although he's too substantial) who are both fruitless here. Also adding Sam Rockwell to the mix as the guitar lesson instructor, it gets ticklish funny.

The credits for the screenplay goes to Justin, his brother Christian, and O'Donnell themselves. Kudos to them. They keep me howling in some of their one-liners and made me attracted to their persona. However, like I said their notion for the narrative may disappoint for its jaded impression. This explains why major distributors refused to finance the film for trust issues and let IFC do it anyway. Nevertheless, this made me look forward for Justin for his next screenplay pitch and see what he could bring new to the table other than acting well in this film. He's proved to be an actor and auteur.

The film doesn't just focus on the love story per se. As we delve into Sam's motivational ease, we're starting to care for whether what he's potent feelings towards Birdie is ideal to be in his own writing or not. The message is too simple to guess, but heck we all have our Sams within us. If Sam don't end up winning Birdie's heart, at least she ends up helping him close the chapter.

"A Case of You" is essentially sweet quirky rom-com that kept me howling with hilarity straight up. If you're a fan of Ruby Sparks, this touching gem is worth singling out.

On paper the story might work but in the film it does not. He fakes it until he makes it? That's not making sense. It's a recipe for disaster, likely to end in murder-suicide. Also, not credibly acted, and the is girl much too consistently nice to be real. Fake on fake!

A reviewer said that our protagonist was basing his interest in the girl solely on looks. That is not true. He saw her every day interacting with customers at the coffee shop. He liked her spirit.

Reviewers also can't understand why she would like our guy, especially since he was a faker. But you can't account for attraction. She saw the real him all along and liked it. Perhaps she was flattered that he made such an effort to accommodate her interests.

Women have intuition that guides them in relationships. She liked him. Let's accept that and move on.

Just Long's comedic timing was perfect in this one. It's like he was channeling Woody Allen without actually copying him. I also thought the cameos were fine. You had a fast-talking publisher, a gay midget coffee guy, an oafish ex-boyfriend, and a wacky guitar teacher, all played by stars. They were good. No one went over the top, which would have been very easy to do.

I think the best thing in this one was the roommate and his girlfriend. I'm not familiar with either actor, but they were natural, funny, down-to-earth, and genuinely helpful.

I don't know the lead girl, Ms. Wood, but she sure is lovely. If her character was not a child of hippies, she would have a jock boyfriend.

There was so much potential for this flick to fall into "Indie" stereotypes with a soundtrack, self-conscious performances, existential philosophy, and some depressing commentary on life. But this one didn't do that. The quirky pixie girl actually turned out to be a solid person with a forgiving soul and plenty of patience.

Although I would love to know how she supports herself.

One thing to note is that all her interests are wildly Left Wing, but she does explain that being due to her parentage. But I guess you could say that the one "Indie" stereotype is that the characters almost always love Godless, artsy stuff, and like most rom-coms, they seem to always live in New York. Trust me folks, N.Y. is not romantic at all. It's dirty, dangerous, crowded, and smelly.

Good movie. Not particularly memorable, but worth a date night. Enjoy.