Review: That Awkward Moment is a romantic/sex comedy about three male best friends in their twenties living in New York City. Two of them, Jason (Zac Efron) and Daniel (Miles Teller), work all book cover designers in a publishing house. The other, Mikey (Michael B. Jordan), is an emergency room doctor. While Jason and Daniel are happily swinging singles with their rosters of girlfriends, Mikey has just been told by his wife that she wants a divorce. All three guys promise to each other that they would all remain single together. Unknown to his friends though, Mikey strove to revive his marriage with wife Vera (Jessica Lucas). On the other hand, Jason meets and gets close to a new girl Ellie (Imogen Poots). Daniel begins to see his BFF- and pick-up partner Chelsea (Mackenzie Davis) in a different light. Can all three yuppies actually keep steadfast in their fraternal pledge?Zac Efron is undeniably fit for this charming yet shallow and arrogant character. It seems though that he had a step backward from his serious portrayals in The Paper Boy and Parkland to find himself in rather embarrassing scenes in the first third of the film (they were funny though). However, in the final third, Zac was more in his element. His final monologue alone reaffirms his status as romantic lead. This was despite my opinion that his Jason and Ellie do not really jive together.Miles Teller plays the raunchy, noisy, annoying friend here. He is the funniest and the most relaxed of the three main actors. He remains very likable despite his smart-alecky character, coming across as a young Andrew McCarthy. His chemistry with his partner Mackenzie Davis was the best of the three pairs in the film. Michael B. Jordan is fresh from his acclaimed performance last year as an ill-fated ex-con in Fruitvale Station. His character is the most stable of the three friends, and his character does not really get too idiotic situations. He finds himself in more dramatic than comic moments here, which makes his character feel like an odd man out.The comedy aspect was only occasionally hilarious when an actor makes a total fool of himself. There are two big comedy gimmicks here that will make this film memorable. One was when they show Zac and Miles try to pee while Viagra was still on full effect. The other was when Zac goes to Ellies birthday party with his awkward sense of dress up. Other than that, nothing really funny, more of annoying, grating and forced.The romantic aspect fared better. It was actually quite well-written, though treading on very familiar ground of male-female relationships and commitment phobia. When is going out just simply going out? The film was quite frank on scenes and language of a sexual nature though, with scenes of semi-nudity of the three actors. I was surprised to see this rated only R-13 locally. This should at least be an R-18 for me because maturity is required to properly understand this aspect of the film. |
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