Good Luck Chuck (2007)

Directed by: Mark Helfrich | 97 minutes | comedy, romance | Actors: Dane Cook, Jessica Alba, Dan Fogler, Lonny Ross, Ellia English, Connor Price, Troy Gentile, Mackenzie Mowat, Sasha Pieterse, Caroline Ford, Chelan Simmons, Natalie Morris, Chang Tseng, Michael Teigen, Chiara Zanni, Ben Ayres, Carrie Fleming, Agam Darshi, Crystal Lowe, Steve Glenn, Téa Helfrich, Yasmine Vox, Tava Smiley, Connor Dunn, Norma Cowley, Elizabeth Schnitzker, Michelle Andrew, Annie Wood, Eliza Bayne, Ed Welch, Tammy Morris, Kari-Ann Wood, Victoria Bidewell, Chris Olech, Camille Atebe, Jessica Olafson, Susan McLellan, Zara Taylor, Simone Bailly, Viviana Dal Cengio, Cassandra Sawtell, Jodie Stewart, Ian Farthing, Charlie Metzger, George Metzger, George Wakeham, Martin Lovick, Lindsay Maxwell, Aaron Dudley, Liam James, Kevin Crofton, June B. Wilde, Jodelle Ferland, Michelle Harrison, Steve Bacic, Georgia Craig, Jody Racicot, Robert Kelly, Emma Barker, Taayla Markell, Heather Doerksen, Marcia Moulton

‘Good Luck Chuck’ is a fairly vulgar comedy in which the boundaries of good taste are regularly explored. When you poke through this, however, you’re left with a charming film, which may have thrown a lot of old jokes into recycling, but still continues to captivate.

Dane Cook (“Employee of the Month”) plays Charlie Logan, a dentist in his late twenties, early thirties. As a naive teenager, he was cursed at a children’s party by a classmate, whom he – out of innocence – rejected. Charlie has never really been in love before, but he’s not really worried about it yet. What is suddenly striking is that every woman he has ever slept with (and in the beginning of the film there are only two) finds the right one after him and gets married.

At one of those weddings, Charlie meets clumsy Cam Wexler (Jessica Alba). Sparks fly and the two have the most fun together. However, it will remain with that one meeting for the time being. When Cam urgently needs a dentist’s help, she calls him and behold…the beginning of the relationship is here! Charlie has since built up a reputation as a ‘good luck charm’ and he can hardly handle the offer of women who want to go to bed with him. What’s nice about Charlie’s character is that he makes objections at first. He does not want to take advantage of the ladies who – sometimes literally – throw themselves at his feet. Encouraged by his comrade Stu (Dan Fogler), who manages to convince him, he decides to give the ladies in question their way. The bridal bells keep ringing…

The humor in this comedy has several layers: the often tacky jokes presented mainly thanks to Charlie’s friend and the blunders made by Jessica Alba’s character Cam. Stu is an oversexed plastic surgeon whose sole ambition is to enlarge breasts. However, thanks to his adolescent humor, he does not do well with the ladies and he seeks refuge – à la ‘American Pie’ in the products of the fruit stall… Cam, on the other hand, is a sweet but oh so clumsy penguin nurse, who is taken care of by her brother (nice supporting role). by Lonny Ross) has been nicknamed Murphy (from Murphy’s Law). There doesn’t seem to be anything that she doesn’t run into, that she drops or forgets. The advantage of these two kinds of humor is that the film will appeal to a larger audience: the banal jokes for one half, the slapstick-like situations for the other half. If you’re into both forms, ‘Good Luck Chuck’ has you covered.

With sex comedies like ‘Knocked Up’ and ‘The 40 Year Old Virgin’ still fresh in our minds, ‘Good Luck Chuck’ unfortunately has to lose out. The film is extremely predictable, although you don’t see who Stu will end up with (or you have to be stuck with an even bigger dirty mind than the makers). The dialogues lack the sharpness that the aforementioned films actually lifted to a higher level and the chemistry between Alba and Cook is not really evident. However, both actors are clearly doing their best and that makes the film quite entertaining.