EAT WHEATIES – Review

By Mark Glass

Obviously, many people love Tony Hale, and the string of socially awkward characters he’s played in dozens of vehicles. Ever since TV’s “Arrested Development,” his shtick has started wearing out its welcome for me. That gave me trepidation about this comedy about a former college nerd appointed to co-chair a class reunion, depending heavily on his ability to contact the actual Elizabeth Banks, remind her of their blink of acquaintance back then, and convince her to attend the event. As required of such films, things go terribly awry, setting up the comedic plot course. As feared, they forgot most of the comedy component.

The shame of this is the broad, talented cast the writers wasted. Alan Tudyk, Elisha Cuthbert, Sarah Chalke, Robbie Amell, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Mimi Kennedy and other familiar names and faces have all entertained us in much better films and TV series. The script obviously appeared more attractive to them in print than in its execution.

Hale plays a social-networking virgin, forced to join Facebook to discharge his duties. His attempts to contact Ms. Banks are mostly on-line and through the screening of her highly-protective agents. He is wrongly branded a stalker and publicly humiliated, causing his life to fall apart before the cinematically-essential upswing in his fate.

One must suspend a lot more disbelief than is justified to stay amused by these proceedings. Hale’s downfall goes too far, and takes up too much of the film’s running time, for an effective comedy. Empathy degrades steadily, as compared to the connections viewers form with other lovable losers like a Napoleon Dynamite, or the eponymous Nerds who kept on seeking Revenge for four feature flicks.

Writer-director Scott Abramovitch is a relative novice, with only a handful of credits. Ideally, this will be a learning experience that leads to better productions. Da kid may have potential.

RATING: 1 out of 4 stars

Screen Media will release in theaters and on demand on April 30.