Film Review: What's Your Number
Oct 09, 2011 11:46AM ● By Wendy Sipple
Based on a novel by Karyn Bosnak, What’s Your Number is a about Ally who, after sleeping with twenty men, decides that she can sleep with no more or she will no longer be a suitable wife. She then trades her neighbor, Colin, a safe haven to hide from his one night stands in return for helping her to hunt down her twenty former lovers to see if one of them has developed into a decent option for a serious relationship.
What’s Your Number is flat. What I mean by that is that the film simply doesn’t elicit laughs or eye rolls, but merely trudges along a horribly forced and predictable storyline. It is a cut and paste job by a screenwriter who assembles all the necessary elements from romantic comedies and places them in the predictable spots. For the most part in this film, nothing truly imaginative or surprising happens. Further, it doesn’t help that Mark Mylod’s direction is lazy and uninspired. Several scenes in the movie are edited in such an uncaring fashion that it feels like the film makers took a look at the footage and said, "I guess that’s good enough."
What is even worse for this movie is that its plot resembles Bridesmaids in several ways. Bridesmaids did many things right which helps to highlight how much What’s Your Number got wrong. Bridesmaids goes for big laughs and all of them are through character development. In What’s Your Number the attempts at humor are small and almost feel like a distraction from the story, and they do nothing to develop any of the characters. In fact, the film makers seem to use their “R” rating to show male butts and think that that alone is enough to warrant laughs.
Anna Faris tries her level best as the leading lady in the film. She almost seems manic at times in her desire to entertain, and it proves to be too much. Her co-star, Chris Evans, is fine as Faris's friend and love interest. His delivery is much more casual, but unfortunately he is not given much to work. The ladies will be happy to know that he spends a fair amount of the movie in his underwear or nearly naked.
People looking for a date movie or girls looking for a classic “chick flick” might find some entertainment value in What’s Your Number, but they will soon forget the movie after leaving the theater. Most people will be bored as every move the movie makes can be anticipated well in advance. In fact the two minute preview of the movie actually reveals the entire movie from start to finish and includes almost every good joke included in the movie. Even better, the trailer can be seen on youtube for free and it will save you the $11 theater charge (not to mention two hours of your life).
Films like What’s Your Number – Ghosts of Girlfriend’s Past, Something Borrowed and No Strings Attached
Justin Buettner is Style's resident movie dude! How did he get this role? Well, he graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a Bachelor of Arts in film Production and a duel minor in Animation and Business with an emphasis in the entertainment field. He later went on to work on several independent films in various key roles including writer and later worked in the special effects field as a motion capture artist. He has since relocated to the Sacramento area with his family and continues writing for small independent films in addition to his movie reviews for Style Magazine.