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It forces The Layover into a frustrating place, and one made even more jarring by the film’s refusal to actually advance its plot. The problem is that it doesn’t really commit to anything, jumping from segment to segment without so much as a running joke to bring it all together. This wouldn’t be too much of an issue if the film instead committed to being more of a romance feature, or a film about friendship, or even a road trip story. It’s not as if jokes are bombing left, right and centre – this is never an uncomfortable film to watch for that reason – it just doesn’t fully commit to being a comedy. While watching The Layover, though, I came to the realisation that I could rarely pinpoint a moment where the film was trying to be funny and failing. The Layover is never a riotously funny film, but it’s sprinkled with enough decent one-liners and chuckle-inducing sight gags to just scrape by. Kate is hardly a revolutionary character, but she’s more in keeping with the film’s tone and sense of humour, and the script at least gives her a small thematic thread that begins in scene one and returns at the end. The film obviously tries to make her more likeable come the final act – it also shoehorns in a secondary romance subplot for her, probably for the same reason – but it hasn’t laid the groundwork to do so. Meg is a shallow individual, a person that you’d never want to spend even a second of your life with. That said, though, it’s not as if the film’s script gives Upton much to work with. I feel like it’s counterproductive to pit the two against each other here, but it’s tough when Daddario is clearly operating on a higher level than Upton. She’s a much subtler performer than Upton, able to draw a laugh with a pitch perfect facial expression or a quick adjustment of her swimsuit, but equally nailing some of the film’s more extreme comedic set pieces. Upton‘s performance here doesn’t help matters either – she overacts a great number of scenes, frequently coming across as grating rather than lively.ĭaddario is given more emotional material to play with, and she relishes in it. Meg is a woefully annoying character, never fully embracing the rest of the film’s more lighthearted, carefree attitude. Clichés can be fun in moderation, but when both of your protagonists are formed around them, it s harder to really buy into what you’re watching. source: Vertical EntertainmentĮven with these technical mishaps, The Layover should still be putting out good humour and fun performances – but it struggles here too. It never quite gets there, though, sometimes even coming across as a film still in its second editing draft: there are random, awkwardly placed fades through black between scenes, occasional mismatched colour grading from shot to shot.
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The Layover was never going to be a comedy classic, but it has all the ingredients to make for a fun, funny 80 minutes. But clichés can also be reliable, we can find comfort in them and still enjoy what they give us. Okay, I’ll admit it: it’s about as clichéd as they come. On the plane they end up seated next to a guy called Ryan ( Matt Barr), whom they both find themselves attracted to, and when they discover that he’s staying in the same hotel as them they begin competing to win his affections. After they both have a bad day at work, they decide to embark on a spontaneous trip to somewhere hot and tropical, only for their plane to be rerouted due to hurricane warnings. Kate ( Alexandra Daddario) is a school teacher, Meg ( Kate Upton) is a business woman. And yet, the film rarely feels confident in itself to achieve any of this – it almost always feels as if its best intention is to just scrape by, never pushing itself to hit the heights I would argue it could hit.
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The story is simple, the cast is mostly likeable, the premise invites a wealth of humour to take us through its brief 80-minute runtime. There’s something fundamentally promising about The Layover it constantly gives off the impression of a film that should really work.