Move over ladies: the bromance is where it’s at
By Colleen Glenn
This summer’s bromance is Get Him to the Greek. Following the trend of The Hangover, I Love You, Man, and Superbad (to name just a few of the recent bromances to hit the big screen), Get Him to the Greek is a buddy film about dude love in which two men find themselves after finding each other. You’ve seen the films; you know the score.
But don’t get me wrong…I liked it.
The latest collaboration from writers Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller, who delivered up the surprise hit Forgetting Sarah Marshall in 2008, features Jonah Hill as the lovable loser and Russell Brand as the hip, hypersexual, virile initiator (so dubbed because it is this character who initiates the loser into “cool.”) In formulaic fashion, the initiator, who started as the teacher, will learn his life is shallow and worthless compared to the lovable loser’s, but not before teaching the loser some important lessons about taking risks, yada, yada, yada.
Although it may not be terribly original, Get Him to the Greek truly delivers as a fun and engaging comedy, and it owes its success to the captivating Russell Brand. The hilarious and extremely talented Brand, who is a British actor, comedian, tabloid-headliner, and all-around controversial celebrity, steals the show as the sympathetic scoundrel, a role he knows something about. Drug addiction, arrests, debauchery, Shagger of the Year Award 3 years in a row…you name it, Brand has done it. Gossip aside, Brand has got “it,” that elusive quality that separates stars from actors, and he’s a delight to watch.
Reprising the role of Aldous Snow from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Brand plays an out-of-control British rock star whose career has completely stalled and his personal life fallen apart. His last album, the racist and ill-conceived “African Child,” we learn, was described as the worst thing to happen to Africa since apartheid. It was also ranked third after famine and war as the worst things ever to happen to Africa.
However, there was a time when Snow was a legitimate rock star, and when entry-level talent scout Aaron Green (Hill) suggests that his company throw a concert to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Snow’s legendary multi-platinum “Infant Sorrow: Live at the Greek,” his boss, Sergio (Sean Combs) gives him the thumbs up, but with this additional instruction: Green must go to London, pick up Snow, get him to the Today Show the next morning, and to LA the following day for the concert. Easy, right?
Wrong. Spoiled celebrity that Snow is, it’s almost impossible to get him on the plane to NYC. Several drinks, shags, and vomits later (there is a lot of vomit in this film, that is my only complaint), Green finally manages to get Snow on the Today Show. Hilarity ensues as the earnest recent college grad prevents Snow from getting smashed before his live TV performance the only way Green can think of: drink all the liquor and smoke all of the marijuana, leaving none for Snow. Needless to say, Green stumbles drunkenly all over the set of the Today Show, offending everyone in sight with his vomit-caked suit jacket and clumsy antics. But, as in the case of each one of these episodes, Green’s solid advice and willingness to take one for the team result in success: one more check on the list of getting Snow to the Greek.
Many more shenanigans develop as the unlikely pair—one, sexy, gorgeous, flamboyant, and rude, the other, fat, sweet, and extremely anxious—make their way to LA. An unplanned stop in Vegas (Snow insists he reunite with his father after hearing Green talk proudly about his dad) puts them so behind schedule that Sergio appears on the scene in order to “mindfuck” the star into wanting to leave Vegas and get to LA.
Once in LA, things take a more serious turn, as Snow realizes the futility of the hedonistic life he has been leading, and Green tries to win back his estranged girlfriend. In the end, both men are better for having met one another, and they form a lasting partnership as a romantic couple.
Just kidding. They don’t. Conveniently, bromances always have girlfriends and wives who are waiting in the wings or willing to overlook infidelity, so that the genre never truly goes where it’s heading: an ending in which the guys get together. (Although they come pretty damn close.)
Before you balk, consider the buddy/bromance flick that took this genre-tease and actually brought it to fruition: Y tu Mamá También. A lot of hetero-males cringed, but many other viewers delighted in its willingness to go all the way in a genre that had been playing coy for fifty years.
Don’t misunderstand me. I’ve always liked buddy films, and their stepchild, the bromance, maintains the inherent philosophy of its parent and grand pappy (the Western): dudes rule.
But that’s OK. I like boys. And given that the only film that celebrates female friendship recently is Sex and the City 2, well, hell, I’ll stick with the boys.
Colleen Glenn is currently working on a screenplay for a girl-mance.
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