Carefree 29-year-old Gothamite Lola (Greta Gerwig) never expected to be dumped by her fiancé, Luke (Joel Kinnaman), just three weeks before their wedding. But here she is, suddenly manless, before the opening credits of Daryl Wein’s flimsy romantic comedy have even finished rolling. At first, the shock is all-consuming—she doesn’t even have the motivation to feed herself a potato chip. But Lola’s scatterbrained spunk (a Gerwig character hallmark) slowly returns as she reluctantly reenters the dating pool.
You could describe the shenanigans that ensue as “mumblecore Sex and the City” if HBO’s Girls hadn’t already stolen Lola’s thunder on that front. Guffaw as our flighty heroine trolls downtown Manhattan bars with her snappy, saucy best friend (cowriter Zoe Lister-Jones). Cringe as her parents (an ill-used Bill Pullman and Debra Winger) offer up romantic advice that’s either way too intimate or several generations out of date. Feel the suspense as she waffles over whether or not to take up with her ex’s hipster-musician best bud (Hamish Linklater). Gerwig is plenty charming, considering the rote stuff she has to work with (props to the performer for very nearly selling Lola’s “this is, like, you know, what I’ve learned” climactic speech). Yet this still feels like a real devolution—hopefully short-lived—after her distinctively eccentric turns in Greenberg and Damsels in Distress.
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