Movie Review: What’s Your Number? (2011)

What’s Your Number? isn’t half as bad as I thought it would be after seeing the trailer, and I was duped into looking for a plot twist about midway through thinking there would be some big third act reveal. Nope, it’s a straight-forward rom-com that goes exactly down the path you’d expect and is made only slightly more enjoyable thanks to an R-rating, a few punchy one-liners and a couple of satisfactory performances from the lead cast. All in all it’s comfort food and you won’t mind consuming it, but you won’t exactly feel full when you’re done.

The story follows Ally Darling (Anna Faris), a rather promiscuous (and not too bright, though I think we’re supposed to believe she is) young woman who’s now in her thirties and beginning to wonder if she’ll ever find Mr. Right after so many Mr. Wrongs. She gets a bit down on herself after reading an article in a magazine (because magazines have all the answers… right?) saying women that have had more than 20 sexual partners tend to grow old alone. Unfortunately for Ally, while at her sister’s bachelorette party she sleeps with her ex-boss (Joel McHale) giving her an even 20.

Determined not to go over this arbitrary number given to her by an all-mighty magazine article, Ally resolves to revisit all her past lovers, hoping one of them has improved with age and become the man of her dreams. And to carry out her task she enlists her womanizing next door neighbor (Chris Evans) to help her track these men down and, blah, blah, blah… you should be able to figure out where things go from here.

Yes, What’s Your Number? is highly predictable and the ending inevitable. And once again inevitability proves to be its downfall, just as is the case with so many films before it. Filmmakers need to learn that once your audience is 100% sure what’s going to happen in the end you need to get to that end unless you have something of the utmost importance to tell us. What’s Your Number? director Mark Mylod (“Entourage”) apparently hasn’t learned that just yet. Fortunately, he has Anna Faris along the way, not to forget a helping hand from Ari Graynor as her sister.

I don’t make it a habit to catch all that many of Anna Faris’s films. The Alvin and the Chipmunks movies don’t interest me and I’m not running out to see Yogi Bear, Mama’s Boy or any of the Scary Movie sequels any time soon. However, I found her to be quite funny in The House Bunny and her delivery here is quite good as well. She has some high quality reaction moments and she’s able to sell a punch line and make it funnier than it actually should be. There aren’t nearly enough good things to say about this film to make it comparable to House Bunny, but tolerable would be a good description for it.

Chris Evans does his thing, as the male whore across the hall, but he’s always been charismatic so that’s no surprise. And if you’re wondering about the supporting performances from the likes of Andy Samberg, Zachary Quinto, Joel McHale, Chris Pratt, Martin Freeman and Anthony Mackie, they are simply a few guys that make up Ally’s list of exes. They have their part and are gone in such a way that’s quite forgettable, though Pratt does make the most of his few scenes.

What’s Your Number? is a movie you won’t mind you saw, but you may mind it if you pay full price. There are a few R-rated bits you don’t get from the trailers, but the film itself isn’t delivering any surprises.

I did appreciate a brief moment near the end where Faris’s character is doing anything she can to get to her man and while climbing over a fence she says what we’re all thinking, “Why didn’t I just wait for him at home?” A similar version of that question will likely be asked by several moviegoers on opening weekend, because this is a film you can wait to watch at home and will get just as much enjoyment out of it there at a fraction of the price.

GRADE: C+

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