As has been said so many times on the pages of this site, the most important aspect of any romantic comedy is that the audience needs to want to see the two leads get together by the time the credits roll. And even though this movie is billing itself as a sort of anti-romantic comedy, in that the two leads start the movie married and end it divorced, the audience still needs to wish that they were together for it to have an emotional impact. Sadly however, that kind of longing is never generated.
The film stars Rashida Jones and Saturday Night Live's Andy Samberg as the title characters, both of whom are straight out of Judd Apatow's Male and Female Stereotypes 101. She's the career driven, serious minded woman, while he's the boy in a man's body. Why they got together is never really explained and they share little chemistry together apart from both inexplicably finding the idea of jacking off tiny inanimate objects to be hilarious (which it isn't, despite being forced to watch them do it twice).
Instead of the movie being about their developing love story, the focus is on the two of them learning to live without the other, or at least that's what it's supposed to be about, but we're only really shown Celeste learning that lesson. Samberg as Jesse, starts the movie as an equal player, but shortly into it is shunted aside so that the focus can be on Jones, who co-wrote the script.
Another important aspect of a romantic comedy, or any genre, is that the lead character should be likable. Yes, of course there are exceptions, but most of the time this holds true. And yes, part of the idea here is that Celeste learns to be more empathetic as the story progresses, but she still comes across as an arrogant snob, who is convinced that she's smarter and has better taste than everyone else, despite no strong evidence to support these theories. Jesse's not much better. He's a slacker who plays around at being an artist, smokes pot and sleeps around.
There are a few funny moments scattered throughout the movie, although there are nearly as many unfunny ones, including every scene with Elijah Wood who plays the obligatory gay friend of Celeste's. Jones is an attractive, capable actress and comedienne. This part could boost her stardom, even if she would be better served acting in movies that she didn't write. As for Samberg, he's merely okay as the male lead. It's certainly a good thing that he's funny and people seem to find him charming, because he's not going to make it on his looks. His Jesse is definitely punching above his weight with Celeste and the several other women in the film who seem to find him attractive.
Like its main characters, this movie is not as smart or funny as it thinks it is. Forget forever, I'll be amazed if I remember them or it at all.
