THEY CAME TOGETHER

THEY CAME TOGETHER Review

By Darin Skaggs

     The spoof genre of today is a joke.  Not a good joke, a bad one.  Spoofs like Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans and others with silly long titles are lazily written and have no substance.  David Wain’s They Came Together is a new spoof of romantic comedies that takes a look at lazy screenwriting and ends up being incredibly funny.

     They Came Together tells the tale of the telling of the tale of the meeting of a cute couple Joel (Paul Rudd) and Molly (Amy Poeler).  Joel works at a big candy firm that is threating to take down a small independent candy shop owned by Molly.  Sound familiar?  Like any good spoof the film hits every cliché from its genre.  This one being romantic comedies hits everything like the two hating each other when first meeting, the guy heading to a bar to drown away his sorrows and even a black best friend with endless amounts of relationship advice.  This film works mostly because there is a good amount of affection for this genre that most look down upon.  Wain, and Michael Showalter, wrote an amazing script that pays homage to the genre but also takes the genre, and lazy screenwriting, to task.

     There are moments in this film, and every Romantic Comedies, that don’t make sense to the characters.  Why do these two fall in love so quickly?  Why is Molly going to marry a strange man named Eggbert?  Some of these scenes are interrupted by the couple who is on a double date with Joel and Molly who are unfortunate to hear this story as they say “Why did you make that choice?”  The answer is mostly “Nothing.  Let’s move on.”  As to say other screen writers should figure out the most realistic way these invented characters would act.

     While this film does take screen writers to task it does not shy away the fact that it is a comedy.  It is one of the funniest films of the year and honestly, it is one of the funniest of the decade.  Many jokes poking fun at the romantic comedy like saying New York City is like a character in their life or Joel having different friends that all have a different view on love.  The film is truly brilliant.  It is a hilarious movie that actually has something to say.  It is lot of fun to watch, so many cameos, dorky jokes and a great scene featuring Adam Scott.