RobotStephe

I had the pleasure of seeing this at a showing in Chicago, and thoroughly enjoyed Tom Lennon in this departure from the typical Reno-911 hijinks. Although a huge fan of his in that (Reno-911) and The State, I was intrigued by the idea of him not playing a "wacky" guy, and instead, a real person.

After the first 1/2 hour or so - I completely forgot I was watching "Tom Lennon" - and instead was totally sucked into the world. The characters were just outrageous enough to be memorable, the situation just real enough to make me wonder if it could be me, and the whole thing just had this great pace. Overall, after watching the movie, you kinda realize, "Hey, maybe things aren't so bad for me." Sometimes, adapted plays (which serves as the source material here) have the cliché of "feeling" like a play that was moved to the screen (State and Main) - however, this had a completely different pace than the stage play - and I think the story benefited from the change of pace. The tragically-comic story of a "might've been" who decides he's had enough and tries to do something may be a stalwart of entertainment - but the REALITY of the situation is what's always ignored. Here, the REALITY hits you and Schroeder (Lennon) in the face, guts and a little in the back.

A few laugh-out-loud moments in this were truly unexpected - and helped with the storytelling. All in all, it wasn't flashy, it wasn't over the top, it was honest. Honest storytelling from an honest story - the scoring, the movement, the pacing - all contributed to an entirely entertaining event. My one complaint - more Stephanie Weir - she's hilarious, and we need to see more from her!