Review: What’s Your Number?

After the cinematic powerhouse that was Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia it seemed right to balance things out with a fun comedy and What’s Your Number? looked perfect to fit the bill.  After discovering that most women in America never settle down if they’ve slept with 20 or more men, Ally (Anna Farris) decides to re-evalute her exes to see if any are now marriage material. She enlists the help of bachelor neighbour, Colin (Chris Evans) to track down these various men.

Despite a fairly interesting concept, What’s Your Number? unfortunately feels like a heartless mass produced picture that falls back on cliched romantic-comedy traits. It really ticks all the boxes, featuring: an unlucky in love lead female character, elaborate wedding scenes and even the slowly developing yet slightly unlikely love-interest. At points it feels as if it’s trying slightly too hard to emulate Bridesmaids but unfortunately it’s neither as funny or as edgy. Although the lead characters feel like they’ve been lifted from any generic romantic-comedy, the likeable leads, Anna Farris and Chris Evans make the roles more bearable.

It’s incredibly difficult not to find Anna Farris funny. In my opinion, she’s possibly the finest young comic actress working today and she brings a sense of life and energy to this cliched part. Chris Evans walks through the role blindfolded, although does unfortunately not have the same comic talent as Farris, failing to pull off some of the gags convincingly. However, there is a nice chemistry between the pair and both do spend a large portion of the film with little clothes on, which I’m sure no one will complain about.

Aside from Farris’ performance, most of the laughs in the film come from some fairly amusing cameos. One of the strongest moments sees Ally meet up with her British ex (Martin Freeman) and tries to fake a British accent that slowly devolves into a Borat impression. There’s also a few laughs from Community’s Joel McHale as Ally’s finger-sniffing boss, as well as a disturbing sexual encounter with a puppeteer played by Andy Samberg. Blythe Danner and Ed Begley Jr pop occasionally as the fairly amusing yet slightly cliched eccentric parents.

What’s Your Number? may appeal to you if you’re after a mindless rom-com with the occasional laugh, but those looking for a substantial R-rated comedy may be left slightly disappointed.