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Canberra Today 19°/23° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Review: ‘I Give It A Year’ (M) ***

IN the title of writer/director Dan Mazer’s somewhat acerbic rom-com, “It” is the marriage into which Nat (Rose Byrne) and Josh (Rafe Spall) have entered at some haste, driven by visual besottment and before long find themselves repenting at leisure.

Mazer’s film and TV career has close associations with Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat character. That’s useful information to have in advance of seeing this film, which is not totally without merit despite incremental plot tedium. The screenplay pushes characters in directions that defy how real-life people, blessed with a healthy cynicism, might proceed.

PR-girl Nat resists getting entangled with wealthy client Guy (Simon Baker) who’s a tad slippery for comfort but what the heck, she’ll change her mind when she’s ready.

Aspiring author Josh married Nat after Chloe (Anna Faris) went to Africa but she has now returned. Chloe is a fun bird.

The screenplay explores domestic clichés before settling on infidelity for its preferred conflict field. It offers a choice selection of friends willing to offer problem-solving advice and encouragement. Stephen Merchant once again plays the best friend from hell, while Olivia Colman (the wife in TV’s “Rev.”) does a doozy of a counsellor whose own marriage is toxic. Minnie Driver is the wife in a marriage nourished by mutual dislike.

See it with somebody you love. Or not.

At all cinemas

 

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Dougal Macdonald

Dougal Macdonald

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