“Wanderlust” nothing to lust over

By Monique Clarke |Staff Writer|

“Wanderlust” is your typical romantic adult comedy with a hippie twist.

The film stars Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston as a Manhattan couple who are stressed out and overworked.

The couple, George and Linda, soon run into money problems when George loses his job and they can no longer can afford the city life. The only choice they have is to move to Atlanta to live with George’s brother, Rick, who is played by actor/writer Ken Marino.

On their way to Atlanta the couple stumbles upon Elysium, a hippie community, in which they meet some colorful characters.

George and Linda see Elysium as a fresh start that will bring them peace and happiness. They soon find Elysium causes them more problems than the ones they already have.

The film provides a lot of familiar territory for actor Paul Rudd, who played a hippie in the 2010 film “My Idiot Brother.”
Rudd again teams up with director David Wain in their third collaboration. Their previous work includes “Role Models,” “Wet Hot America Summer” and “The Ten” in which all the movies received good reviews.

Sadly, the duo dropped the ball with this film.

The storyline for “Wanderlust” is predictable so while watching the film you kind of already know what is going to happen. This only serves to make the film a bit dull.

The movie covers almost every hippie joke in the book, which is funny at times and redundantly over-played at other times.

The film received an R rating due to its strong sexual content and graphic nudity. The hippies in the film were mostly nudists and typically, it couldn’t be a hippie comedy without drug use.

It may have been the movie’s storyline that failed to deliver, but the cast was clearly the film’s strength. The film featured a number of familiar faces producing the funniest moments.

“Reno 911” actress Kerri Kenney plays Kathy, a regular hippie living in Elysium.

Joe Lo Truglio (“Superbad”) plays nudist Wayne Elysium and Kathryn Hahn (“Step Brothers”) plays Karen, an angry former porn star.

Other critics have been less than favorable about “Wanderlust.” Tom Long of the Detroit News lamented the mediocrity of the film, saying that it, “feels pasted together; the story doesn’t flow, it staggers forward.”

The film does have its funny moments, but it just wasn’t enough.

With a predicable storyline and a half-decent cast, it just wasn’t enough to make “Wanderlust” a successful film. Overall, it is just an OK movie to watch.