Save the Date (R)

Time Out says

Tue Dec 11 2012

At the moment, there’s no one better at walking the line between ingratiating twitchiness and modest psychosis than Lizzy Caplan—and she strolls said line all the way through Michael Mohan’s modestly engaging romance. While her bride-to-be sister (Alison Brie) frets over place settings for the wedding, Caplan’s bookstore-clerk-cum-cartoonist nervously shacks up with her indie-rocker boyfriend (Geoffrey Arend), who thinks a packed gig is the ideal place to propose to his commitment-shy sweetheart. Whoops! While those around her mope and worry, our heroine goes in for some mild soul-searching, moving out on her own and indulging a flirtation with a smitten customer (Mark Webber).

With its bright colors and charismatic cast, Save the Date is impossible to dislike, unless you bristle at movies whose primary asset is their likability. The script has Caplan’s character musing that her dead-end job makes her happier than her high-achieving friends—only to suddenly switch directions by giving her a gallery show (the idly drawn sketches come from comic-book artist Jeffrey Brown), complete with an inquisitive Artforum writer. Likewise, the film can’t decide if it wants to amiably go nowhere or push for a more pat, crowd-pleasing resolution. Whether it’s Caplan and Webber trading goofy dance moves or Brie being perkily OCD-ridden, Date works best as a collection of winsome, unconnected vignettes; its ideal distribution model would be piece by piece on YouTube.

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Author: Sam Adams