The Art Of Getting By (Fox Blu-ray)/Friends With Benefits (Sony Blu-ray w/DVD)/He’s Mine, Not Yours (Image DVD/all 2011)

 

 

Picture: B-/B- & C/C+     Sound: B-/B- & C+/C+     Extras: C+/C/C-     Films: C+/C/C

 

 

Oh, those relationship films.  Why don’t they work?  Are our times so boring that everything becomes formulaic? 

 

 

Gavin Wiesen’s The Art Of Getting By is the best of the three here with Freddie Highmore as a young man dealing with split parents, an odd step-father and growing up in a strict school where he shows promise as an artist but does not take things seriously enough until his family life gets worse and personal life gets challenged by his affection for a young lady (Emma Roberts) he does not know how to react to.  If it were not enough that they have chemistry, this is a well-cast film overall (including turns by Rita Wilson, Michael Angarano and Blair Underwood among them that make this work when it does) but there are too many interludes where the plot stops for forgettable songs and it becomes a victim of bad mumblecore sensibilities.

 

That is too bad because had Wiesen tries to sit back and let this happen, but what he does not realize is that there is more to show and say, then he has to do more to make things happen and say those things.  What could have been another …say anything turns into another victim of mumblecore and “feel-good” movie thinking that holds it back.  Still, it’s great when it works and is worth a look just the same.

 

Extras include Fox Movie Channel and HBO First Look pieces promoting the film, a Theatrical Trailer, two featurettes (New York Slice Of Life, On Young Love) and a feature length audio commentary by Wiesen where he has some interesting things to say, but like the film, not all the time.  He is silent too often which further proves my point.

 

 

Less ambitious and sillier is Will Gluck’s semi-formulaic Friends With Benefits, the commercial pairing of the gorgeous, beautiful, Dynamic, sexy star-on-the-rise Mina Kunis and a singer/dancer/rapper-of-some-kind-trying-to-act named Justin Timberlake.  Kunis (Black Swan, Family Guy) plays an executive who seems to have filled a key job at a major magazine with a web-savvy guy (Timberlake) in what should be a simple business transaction and maybe a future contact, but the two have both just ended relationships and are hesitant to start new ones.  They get involved, but with limits and an agreement it will not become personal, which will not last.

 

However, that does not mean it will work out smoothly and we get an oversized sitcom/TV movie with some nice locales, a few laughs (to my surprise) and Kunis stealing every scene she is in.  Some of the jokes are dumb and often, then early on, the film jumps the shark and any credibility it has ends.  Kunis seems to have had an effect on Timberlake (he does not try to “act” as much, making this more watchable), but the two together would be like pairing Audrey Hepburn with Robby The Robot romantically and expecting us to believe it.  That would have made a better film because Robby is actually better comically.

 

Either way, this is fluff and even supporting work by Patricia Clarkson, Jenna Elfman, Woody Harrelson and Richard Jenkins cannot make up for its many flaws with a script credited to four writers!  Geez!  Hope Kunis “benefits” from this one the most.

 

Extras include BD-exclusive pop-up trivia track called Bonus Benefits, On Set with FWB featurette and In a Flash: Choreographing A Mob featurette, plus Ultraviolent copy, five free music downloads via Sony Music, Deleted Scenes, Outtakes and a feature length audio commentary by Gluck, Timberlake and Kunis.

 

 

Finally we have Roger Melvin’s He’s Mine, Not Yours, a comedy about sexual relationships among young African Americans including two firemen and the many women who they seem to run into, but the gals have their own ideas and one of them actually runs a private eye-like operation trying to see how faithful targeted men are being to the women they are dating.  Though energetic and interesting, it is also vaguely funny and eventually gets boring and predictable.  The unknown cast (Caryn Ward, Gabrielle Dennis, Jason Weaver, Carl Payne, Wendy Rachel Robinson) even have some chemistry together, but the director cannot make it all work.  I would like to see him try again, though.  Extras include a Photo Gallery, Outtakes and short Behind The Scenes featurette.

 

 

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 AVC @ 23 MBPS digital High Definition image transfer on Art is on par with the same on Benefits, a little softer than a new production should be but looking decent.  Art has a slight edge in an overall look that is consistent and more watchable whereas Benefits looks more like a sitcom too often, which is more apparent on the anamorphically enhanced DVD version included in our set.  Even the anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Yours does not seem as soft.

 

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes on the Blu-rays tend to be dialogue-based and are more towards the front speakers then I would have liked and music is not always mixed as nicely into the overall soundtrack as you might expect.  In both cases, the music is mostly unmemorable anyhow or badly places, especially in Benefits, whose DVD version has a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix that is not as good.  Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is featured on Yours and sounds about as good to my surprise, though you can tell there are some limits to the location audio.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo