[Locke]

I just checked out, 'I Give it a Year' as it's always good to check out your home countries cinema.

The hard part about I Give it a Year is it's often utterly terrible, but then at random moments it's actually pretty good. It tells the utterly clichéd and generic tale of two young lovers, obsessed with the idea of being IN love, who get married way too early and we watch the thing quickly go down the pan as the movie ticks every damn romcom box in the most obvious narrative trajectory for this kind of film, that the film can muster. Rose Byrne plays Nat, our leading lady, and Rafe Spall plays Josh, our leading man.

Nat is problematic in the fact that she is a completely unlikeable bitch but despite this she is, at key moments, a crucial part in some of the funniest moments, "why the FUCK has she got a lot of cat urine?!".

Josh is problematic in the fact that he is a bit of a dick, but Spall himself is someone who is so naturally charming that outside of the scenes where he's specifically meant to come across as a massive twat, you can't really hate the guy.

Most problematic though is it seems the movie both wants, and expects us, to hate Nat and Josh equally, when in reality the movie really isn't that no bias.

This almost onesided feel to the movie undermines the movies whole message and point, which is a double low blow as the message is already bland and generic as it is, without the movie undermining what little integrity the message carried. At least it's bound to get the pseudo feminists on tumblr in a crotchless panty twist, that is always a small victory.

Outside of our leading couple the film is just sort of cringeworthy. Honestly cringe seems to be one of the only things Mazer (the guy who wrote the grossly overrated Borat, he's here writing and directing this) seems to be able manage. It isn't a charming romance, it doesn't fill you with feelings of nostalgia, it doesn't ground your emotions by being true to life or have you laugh out loud, no, pretty much the entire film just has you hide behind your hands.

Honestly in a weird kinda way, it takes a certain talent to elicit such a strong reaction from the audience, even if it is revulsion and horror, so I can't really hate it. Is it a good movie? God no, it's awful. But it's certainly an experience and that has to count for something, right?