Along Came Polly: a romantic comedy without the cheese factor

RACHEL KINGSTROM

Staff Writer

Along Came Polly is a romantic comedy that delivers a lot of laughs with a lot of heart. Ben Stiller gives an entertaining performance as Reuben Feffer, a senior risk analyst who, as a result of the statistics he deals with every day, is slightly neurotic, likes to do everything according to plan, and is extremely cautious in everything he does.

The story begins when Reuben weds serious girlfriend Lisa Kramer (Deborah Messing). The couple goes on their honeymoon on St. Bart’s, and Reuben makes the grave mistake of leaving Lisa to take scuba diving lessons from Claude (Hank Azaria), a muscular Frenchman who prefers to strut around in the nude. Feffer returns after awhile to find Claude in bed with his new wife. Reuben is utterly shocked, and, to add to his devastation, Lisa tells him that she is going to stay on the island to be with Claude.

So, the forlorn Feffer returns to his lonely apartment in New York City, where he receives sympathy from just about everyone he sees--even strangers. After a few days of sulking and being depressed, he takes advice from a friend to get out and start dating again. So, he goes with his friend to a party, where he runs into an old friend from middle school, Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston).

Reuben tries to work up the courage to call and ask Polly out on a date, but hangs up on her twice. Polly uses the callback feature on her phone to call Reuben back, at which point he freaks out. Nevertheless, they end up going out to dinner. Polly, pretty much the polar opposite of Reuben, is free-spirited, somewhat flaky, and very daring. The relationship between the seemingly unlikely couple progresses from that first dinner, as Polly helps to loosen Reuben up.

Things are going great until Lisa unexpectedly returns. Reuben must then decide between an ordinary, stable marriage with Lisa and a spontaneous, adventure-filled life with Polly.

Entangled in this complicated love story are a slew of quirky and interesting characters, a lot of bathroom humor, and even a ferret. I have to admit that I wasn’t looking forward to seeing this movie, and the only reason I chose to review it was because it was the best option among a limited selection of movies. I’m not really a big fan of romantic comedies, and I didn’t have much hope for this film, but I really enjoyed it. The love story aspect of the movie wasn’t too sappy or dramatic, which is often the problem with romantic comedies. There was enough classic Ben Stiller humor in the movie to keep it from getting that way.

While I enjoyed the movie for the most part, there were a few parts in it that seemed to be a little drawn out. One of them was a scene in which Feffer was playing basketball with some people, and he had an interesting encounter with a large, hairy man. Other than that, I thought the movie was very well done for being a light-hearted, romantic comedy. Whether it’s the bathroom humor, the romance, or the crittery goodness, there is something for everyone in this movie.

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