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• Currently 2/5 Stars.

Movies.ie Critic Review

I GIVE IT A YEAR (UK/16/97mins)
Directed by Dan Mazer. Starring Rose Byrne, Rafe Spall, Anna Faris, Stephen Merchant, Simon Baker, Olivia Colman, Jason Flemyng, Minnie Driver, Jane Asher.
THE PLOT: After a whirlwind montage, Josh (Spall) and Nat (Byrne) get married, ignoring the little giveaway signs that they may not be the perfect match. Giveaway signs such as Josh’s best friend, Danny (Merchant), nearly derails the wedding with his crude and inappropriate speech. Or that catty friend Naomi (the catty Driver) mutters the film’s title during the ceremony. And sure enough, nine months later, Josh and Nat are finding life together a tad irritating, Nat being the first to feel she may have made a terrible mistake – especially when she meets the suave Guy (Baker), a guy much more suited to her tastes and temperament. For Danny, it’s old flame Chloe (Farris) who has begun feeling like his great escape from his great mistake…
THE VERDICT: There was a time when England’s Working Title Films ruled the roost when it came to romantic comedies, thanks to the likes of Four Weddings, Notting Hill and Love, Actually, but that mantle has been passed on to the Apatow posse. These days, after the first rush of gross-out, audiences like their romantic comedies to be both sweet and crudely frank, and Dan Mazer (who co-wrote and co-produced much of Sacha Baron Cohen’s output) would seem a perfect first-time director for such a warts-and-all approach to the genre. Unfortunately, the feelbad premise here is never quite balanced out by the naughty slapstick on offer. Long before the inevitable station platform showdown, the plot has tied itself in so many knots, you really don’t care who ends up with who.

RATING: 2/5
Review by Paul Byrne 

• Avg User rating
• Currently 2/5 Stars.

User Reviews

• • Currently 2/5 Stars.

  lisabyrnedub@hotmail.com

  

  When I heard this film was produced by the same people as Love Actually, I think my expectations became too high. Alright girly film, but I wouldn't be rushing to see it again... jokes were quite poor. I usually like Stephen Merchant, however, I didn't in this!

• • Currently 2/5 Stars.

  emer

  

  The producers of Love Actually and Bridget Jones bravely step up again with a new romcom here and ultimately I think it falls short. Rafe Spall and Rose Byrne are Josh and Nat, two intelligent and attractive people who got married too fast. Their mismatched relationship is a disaster, they are polar opposites. They work hard to try to salvage the marriage but to no avail. While Nat falls for a suave american millionaire, Josh’s former girlfriend reappears and it’s apparent that she is far more suited to him. Admittedly there are laughs, I loved the scene where Anna Faris is in a 3 in a bed sex romp - she just cannot enjoy it or fit in, genuinely very funny. Minnie Driver has a largely unnecessary role as a grumpy old friend with not a lot to say or do except slander her poor husband. I just don’t really care about the characters, the plot or the outcome. The story meanders aimlessly from scene to scene and just can’t spark enough wit and sharp comedic conversations to keep it alive. Although it provides the odd chuckle, some of the humour is just pathetic, especially any attempts at vulgarity – Judd Apatow, this is not. A particular scene where a dove is attacking Nat in the office is lame and elsewhere we just cringe as the humour falls flat, barely raising a smile and not much more. The whole premise feels contrived and careless. The story line is poor, the characters underdeveloped and the whole relationship unrealistic. I think the director was trying to hard to replicate the successes of The Hangover and Bridesmaids and it just didn’t work for me. Save your money for This Is 40 instead.

• • Currently 2/5 Stars.

  filmbuff2011

  

  Borat and Bruno writer Dan Mazer makes his directorial debut with I Give It A Year. It's a valiant but ultimately mis-guided attempt to reverse-engineer the Working Title romcom that we know so well. After a brief romance worthy of Katie Price, Josh (Rafe Spall) and Nat (Rose Byrne) get married. Fast forward 9 months and they're already getting tetchy with each other and are struggling to make it to a year. When Nat gets distracted by a suave client (Simon Baker) and Josh gets entangled with his sweet-natured ex (Anna Faris), it looks like this marriage is heading for the rocks... Although Mazer has denied that this is an anti-romcom, it's obvious that it shares the same DNA as The Break-Up. There's really not a lot to laugh at here, with the performances coming across as either lacking personality (Spall) or gratingly unfunny (Stephen Merchant). Faris comes out best, reliable as always. Mazer's script tries to be different, but also conforms to convention with the traditional last-minute rush, this time to a train station. I Give It A Year is best summarised as 'if the formula ain't broke, then don't fix it'. Time to bring back Hugh Grant and his floppy hair...

• • Currently 1/5 Stars.

  Onionhead

  

  Like a Frankenstein's Monster of the worst characteristics of the movies of Richard Curtis (smugness) and Judd Apatow (misogyny), Mazer's film delivers every romantic comedy cliché imaginable.

• • Currently 3/5 Stars.

  mart

  

  Spall and his co-star Rose Byrne are two incredibly likeable comic performers, and Dan Mazer's cheerfully abrasive film capitalises on that quality to tell a story that might otherwise have been too sour to swallow.

• • Currently 4/5 Stars.

  laume

  

  Mazer's comedy pedigree ensures this is regularly laugh-out-loud funny.

• • Currently 4/5 Stars.

  Amandareid007

  

  Anybody familiar with London will appreciate Mazer's anti-Curtis approach to the city, more Soho than South Bank, but regardless of region it's hard to resist I Give It a Year's spiky charms.