Review: What’s Your Number (2011)

Directed by: Mark Mylod | 113 minutes | comedy | Actors: Anna Faris, Chris Evans, Martin Freeman, Chris Pratt, Zachary Quinto, Anthony Mackie, Aziz Ansari, Thomas Lennon

The number of bed partners a person has had can give rise to serious arguments between lovers, but it can also lead to feelings of shame – whether too many or too few in the person’s eyes. In “What’s Your Number?”, Which refers to the number of sexual partners, protagonist Ally Darling is very concerned about it. Just after she was fired, she reads in a semi-scientific article in a popular women’s glossy that the average is about 10.5. A quick calculation shows her that she is almost double: nineteen. Add to that the fact that her attractive and much more stable sister is about to tie the knot and Ally is told at the preceding party that when the number goes over twenty, most women will have a nice and healthy marriage on their stomach. can write and her decision is made. Number twenty must be the one.

Of course Ally does not know how to comply with this boldly announced measure and of course she goes into bed that same evening in a drunken state with someone who is absolutely not the one she wants to marry: notably her ex-boss, who fired her earlier that day. . When Ally runs into one of her exes, who looks way better now than when she broke up with him, she realizes that there will be more men who may not have turned out to be worth it then, but they are now. Ally decides to search for all her previous boyfriends and gets help from her attractive neighbor across the street, who is allowed to use her apartment in exchange for his detective skills. He wants to shelter there from the necessary one-night stands, which without exception he does not really have to see in the morning.

Anna Faris is a great comedienne, and her girl-next-door appearance also works to her advantage in this film. But the humor in the book (‘What’s Your Number’ is based on Karyn Bosnak’s bestseller “Twenty Times a Lady”) was more subtle and it was more in the bizarre situations in which the first-do-than-think protagonist managed to find himself. to work. The translation to the silver screen is therefore not entirely successful: the jokes are often stale – although Faris can easily awaken a smile from the viewer here and there. What is striking is the somewhat vulgar undertone of the jokes, as we know them from Judd Apatow’s films. Unfortunately, the screenwriters seem to think that using “penis” and “vagina” will cause chuckles, as the jokes don’t always work out well here. In “Friends with Benefits” – a similar “sexy romantic comedy,” the sexual undertone made for much more comical situations.

Speaking of sexy: Chris Evans can be seen with a bare (upper) body quite often, but that is not the only plus: Evans is charming, has nice lyrics and the chemistry between him and his co-star is abundant. It is a shame that these two nice protagonists have to make do with this mediocre scenario (while the source material is so promising), because this does not fully use their talent. For example, the “social media” additions – the use of Facebook and Twitter – are very forced and the story of the film has been stretched too long to remain really interesting. Fortunately, the supporting actors (including Blythe Danner as Ally’s demanding mother, Ari Graynor as her sister and the actors who play Ally’s exes) make a positive contribution to the film. Yet the cast, no matter how hard they try, is unable to transform the unoriginal and lackluster screenplay of “What’s Your Number” into a classic in the genre.