Cineast: 'A Walk in the Woods,' 'Sleeping With Other People,' 'Before We Go'
This week, Cineast offers previews of the new flicks Before We Go, Sleeping With Other People and A Walk in the Woods.
A Walk in the Woods
An anti-buddy comedy of the “two old guys who don’t really get along with each other set off together on an epic hike along the Appalachian Trail” variety. Robert Redford and Nick Nolte star in A Walk in the Woods, a one-joke film that will rise or fall in direct relation to how many women of senior citizen age still want to pay money to see their old heartthrob Robert Redford. Meanwhile, it’s hard to imagine that Nolte will still be a draw for any demographic. Nick Nolte as an old man, sporting a scraggly white beard, is starting to look kind of like a white Redd Foxx. But in an interesting twist, Robert Redford as an old man is starting to resemble Nick Nolte when Nolte was a younger man. There’s no possibility of confusion, however, as Redford still sounds like Redford when he talks, while Nolte now sounds like a laryngitic tubercular. Living hard will take its toll.
Sleeping With Other People
Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie star in Sleeping With Other People, a modern-day screwball-ish comedy. Jake and Lainey are former college flames and are now sex addicts, compulsively promiscuous—your basic out-of-control “sluts.” Reconnecting at a 12-step group for sex addicts, they form a platonic friendship, with the understanding that they are not allowed to have sex with each other. With this novel way of staving off the inevitable, the film goes along as expected, with Jake and Lainey, barred from hopping into bed together, slowly forming a durable relationship the “right” way. There are, of course, a lot of raunchy laughs throughout. Finally, realizing that they care for each other in a way they’ve never experienced with anyone else, Jake and Lainey are torn between their growing attraction and their worry that any breaking of their self-imposed “no sex” rule will destroy what they’ve got.
Before We Go
Before We Go is a romance starring bearded hottie Chris Evans as Nick, a young trumpet player in Grand Central Station, and blonde hottie Alice Eve as Brooke, a damsel in distress. When Brooke loses her purse and misses the last train, Nick comes to her aid and they spend a night to remember in the big city. Of course, they become confidantes and best friends and everything else—both characters, it turns out, have been ill-used in love and are open to a fresh start. Some nice scenes in gorgeous Grand Central, and good shots of the city at night—but definitely a film for the sentimentalists out there.