Pricey Elizabeth overview – well-known title decorates warm-hearted loser comedy | Movie

The Starvation Video games’ Elizabeth Banks is an surprising alternative because the muse of this Canadian comedy-drama, tailored from Michael Kun’s pre-social media-era novel a few sadsack software program employee’s obsession with Heather Locklear – who, to be sincere, was extra front-and-centre than Banks within the zeitgeist of her day. Debut director Scott Abramovitch’s mild movie is much less a take a look at digital-age fandom than an affable primer on accepting your personal unremarkableness.

Sid Straw (Tony Hale) is pootling alongside in his job as VP of selling at a generic agency, waving/drowning on the midlife courting scene, and worsening his sister-in-law Janet (24’s Elisha Cuthbert) together with his try-hard perkiness. So when he’s referred to as to organise a university reunion, he spies a golden alternative to bolster his standing: by persuading his well-known one-time pal Elizabeth Banks to attend. He begins leaving messages on her Fb web page, oversharing about his private life and invariably signing off with “Eat wheaties!”; the particular farewell the longer term Hollywood star would shout out to the volleyball crew.

However the hapless desk-jockey doesn’t realise the posts are public. As Sid’s skilled life unravels, Hale forestalls what might need been a satirical pile-on with deft attentiveness to the nerves and eagerness to please behind the droopy moustache. He’s helped by Abramovitch’s fastidious characterisation, maybe left over from its literary origins; there’s lived-in element in every single place, together with a voicemail scene harking back to Swingers, wherein Sid’s hands-free makes an attempt to name “Kate, My Girlfriend” find yourself in “Ray’s Skate Land”.

There’s a sort of bravery in having Sid stay an unfailingly good man, even when his world is collapsing and he calls on the service of a slovenly lawyer (Paul Walter Hauser). However perhaps giving him some darker traits, a touch of stalker obsession, would have pushed Pricey Elizabeth’s comedy into one thing extra radically humorous, as a substitute of simply being briskly amusing. The sitcom-ish route drags it additional within the route of complacency, however Hale and the centered writing guarantee it has a kind-hearted integrity.