Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan and Zac Efron star in ‘That Awkward Moment.’ Photo/FOCUS FEATURES
If you’re looking for a surface-level romantic comedy that is just as predictable as the look on your mom’s face when she sees Zac Efron’s half-naked body, look no further. Writer and director Tom Gormican’s first film, ‘That Awkward Moment,’ attempts to tell a love story of sorts from a male perspective as it delves into the lives of three young men living in New York.
Jason, played by Efron, lives in Manhattan and designs book covers for a living. He has a typical pretty-boy view on relationships, and by that I mean he lurks around bars and tries to sleep with a different woman every night. Jason justifies this by saying that it’s better to have a “roster” of women.
Jason’s best friend and co-worker Daniel, played by Miles Teller, knows that he can’t get by on his looks alone, so he relies on his quick and witty sense of humor as well as his wing-woman Chelsea, played by Mackenzie Davis, to pick up women.
Completing this trio is Michael, who is played by Michael B. Jordan. Michael is a successful doctor who happens to be the only one of his friends in a relationship, having married his college sweetheart at the age of 23 … until he finds out that his wife is leaving him for the lawyer she’s been cheating on him with.
Being the good friends that they are, Jason and Daniel take Mikey to a bar to both cheer him up and to teach him how to pick up women. The three of them all agree to be commitment-free for the time being. To seal the deal, Daniel makes them each pop a Viagra before entering the bar.
‘That Awkward Moment’ becomes unbelievably predictable as soon as each of the men break their pact of being single and care-free, while also trying to hide their relationships from one another. Jason starts to fall for Ellie, a publisher that he meets at the bar, played by Imogen Poots. Daniel realizes that he thinks of Chelsea as more than just a friend and Mikey begins sleeping with his wife again.
Gormican attempts to add an element of drama with the death of Ellie’s father after Jason had just recently met him. Despite their relationship, Jason would rather be with his friends than have to lie to them about going to the funeral, causing Jason to lose out on someone who liked him for more than just his looks.
Although almost every woman seeing this movie would love to be Efron’s shoulder to cry on, the plot takes a positive, and yet again predictable, turn.
After much begging and wooing, Jason and Ellie end up back together, and Daniel comes clean about his relationship with Chelsea. Mikey, however, discovers that his wife is still cheating on him with the lawyer, and ends up alone. On a positive note though, he does realize that he is better off without her.
While anyone with knowledge of the typical romantic comedy setup would be able to tell almost exactly how this movie played out, it wasn’t completely terrible. The cast was made up of charming and attractive young men and women, and the dialogue was full of whit and one-liners. If nothing else, you get to see 94 minutes of a very good-looking Zac Efron.
‘That Awkward Moment’ is rated R for adult theme, foul language and sexual content.
I give this movie 6 out of 10 stars, because it isn’t unlike every other romantic comedy you’ve already seen.
