That Awkward Moment (2014)
Directed by Tom Gormican
Best pals Jason and Daniel indulge in casual flings and revel in their carefree, unattached lives. After learning that the marriage of their friend Mikey is over, they gladly welcome him back into their circle. The three young men make a pact to have fun and avoid commitment. However, when all three find themselves involved in serious relationships, they must keep their romances secret from one another.
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So we have a film with a serious look and a serious premise, which keeps interrupting itself for atonal, not-that-funny sex jokes that seem lifted from the “American Pie” series.
The raunchy romantic comedy, once Canada’s chief export, had a brief renaissance in the early 2000s with the American Pie series.
The title conjures teens and text-speak (Dat Awky Momo, anyone?), but writer-director Tom Gormican’s debut feature owes as much to Woody Allen as it does the American Pie movies.
The boys then make a pact to stay single for their bro, a lá American Pie (rom-com callback #2?).
The fatal flaw of this movie is that, rather than sticking to a plan and being a true film about the perils of dating and relationships, it wants to be the new American Pie.
“That Awkward Moment” wants to be part “American Pie” and part “Swingers.”
When Daniel tells Jason to win Ellie’s heart and to “Do it like the movies… like Jerry Maguire,” one wishes Gormican would have restrained himself from inserting corny proclamations of love at the end that do recall the eye-rolling “You had me at hello” moment from Cameron Crowe’s comedy classic.
In its last 20 minutes, "That Awkward Moment" falls off a bit by doing two things romantic comedies often do, no matter how much we might wish they wouldn't: (1) There are unnecessary complications, with people misbehaving in unexpected ways, just to stretch out the action; and (2) We get one of those public confessions of love, of a kind that no one has done well since " Jerry Maguire ."
So, although writer/director Tom Gormican wants his movie to hearken back to a series of films he has an affinity for (he calls out Jerry Maguire by name), he's aware that the genre has evolved to where copious amounts of profanity and frank sexual talk are expected.
Three male friends make a pact to stay single and play the field in That Awkward Moment, a first-time feature from Tom Gormican that tries to mix Hangover raunch with a heartfelt Jerry Maguire-style romance, in what might be more aptly titled Those Awkward 94 Minutes.
I'm not referring to cutesy fourth-wall breaches, since those have been around since Annie Hall, at least.
However, while That Awkward Moment falls considerably short of the heights achieved by the likes of Annie Hall and Manhattan , it also avoids the potholes of some of Allen's less successful New York-based productions.
Efron’s performance is trying and tiresome as he attempts to pull off the smooth and charismatic fast-talking generally employed by Vince Vaughn (think Swingers and Wedding Crashers).
In such a scenario, Efron’s Jason could have made for interesting supporting comic relief, and the actor might have been allowed a certain amount of devilish charisma; think back, for example, to Vince Vaughn’s motor-mouth lady-killer Trent in Swingers.
Writer/director Tim Gormican seems to have fished his screenplay out of a bin marked “1997,” when tremendously artificial sitcom set-ups and post-Swingers macho philosophizing were celebrated, along with the immature and often disgusting behavior of these types of lothario protagonists.
“That Awkward Moment” wants to be part “American Pie” and part “Swingers.”
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Bouncing around Gramercy and Brooklyn as he does, I assume writer/director Tom Gormican was going for a revamp of the New York love story, but it lacks the heart of movies like When Harry Met Sally or Manhattan.
Gormican uses Manhattan as more than a setting.
Watching Michael B. Jordan escape the “I have an orange penis” scene with his dignity intact is not entirely unlike watching John Gielgud walk into, and then mercifully out of, Arthur 2: On the Rocks.
It’s a less emotional, less consequential updating of “About Last Night,” the David Mamet play (“Sexual Perversity in Chicago”) turned movie which, coincidentally, has earned an urban/African American remake this Valentine’s Day.
Meanwhile, Jason talks his way into Ellie’s (Imogen Poots) bed courtesy of alcohol-fueled repartee that’ll leave The Thin Man’s William Powell and Myrna Loy spinning in their respective graves.
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For a raunchy R-rated comedy, Gormican's debut is surprisingly sophisticated at times, and he even manages to achieve a certain level of John Hughes circa "Some Kind of Wonderful" by the end.
Indeed, put the two together, and That Awkward Moment almost plays like a post-modern romantic comedy Caligula: a celebration of unforgivable behavior with a cast that surely, SURELY must have had something better to do.