Just Friends Feature Article
—1. Overview (multimedia)
—2. Overview Basic (dial up speed)
—3. Reviews and Blogs
—4. Cast and Crew
—5. Photo Pages
—6. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—7. Posters (comedy films)
—8. Production Notes (pdf)
—9. Spiritual Connections
—10. Presentation Downloads
Just Friends begins with a basic storyline, one familiar to almost everyone. It doesn't stop with the common experience however. It transcends the ordinary in almost every way. From the writing, to the filming, to the story and characters, this film went a step beyond the average movie-making experience.
To begin with, the set location was extreme. Filmed in Saskatchewan in the middle of winter, both cameras and actors were dramatically affected by temperatures that fluctuated between negative 20 and negative 50 degrees. The crew scattered handwarmers throughout their clothes and the cameras were heated. In the production notes, Chris Klein comments, "When I walked out of the airport terminal, the cold punched me in the face." Of course, Ryan Reynolds had the luxury of wearing the fat suit. The way he described it, "The thing was made out of lava. It was minus 40 out there and I'd just sit out there and steam."
Beyond the trials of filming, the story itself underwent seven or eight years of development before director Roger Kumble came on the project and took the script apart again. Screenwriter Adam "Tex" Davis held on throughout the whole process. Kumble said, "I told Tex, 'Here's the deal,' cause I"m a writer too, 'I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna sit with you and you're gonna hate me, but I'm never gonna replace you. You're gonna be the only writer on a studio comedy.' And that never happens. Never happens. I said, 'Hate me now, love me later.' He was a great sport about it because we'd make him do things over and over." With the addition of changes, comments and improvisation scenes by the actors, it's amazing that the story flows so smoothly.
Roger Kumble deliberately set out to make a movie that would push the limits. He said, "So often, you have that R rated movie and they say it’s gotta go PG-13, and you end up hacking it up in the editing room. But we knew we were making a pg-13 movie. So with the producers and the studio and Ryan, [we thought] let’s think of the funniest PG-13 movie. If we could go right up to the line and try to do everything, it’d work." The risque picture of Samantha James (Anna Farris) will raise some eyebrows in the theaters, but Kumble did take it before the ratings board to make sure it stayed within the bounds of the PG-13 rating. He said, "This is an example of trying to take PG-13 as far as it will go." Kumble also fostered the idea of pushing the characters to the limits of humor. Ryan Reynolds joked, "With Roger you'd do ten versions of the same scene. He'd go, 'Let's do this one pissed off, the whole one, just be totally pissed off. Let's do this one like you've got a secret that is, you know, you've got a squirrel somewhere inside your body.' It'd be so random..." Amy Smart commented in the production notes, "One of Roger's greatest strengths is being able to determine how to tweak a scene, make it funny, dynamic and really come alive."
The story didn't stop with extreme humor. They chose to keep the story grounded in reality by making the characters three-dimensional. Chris Klien said, "I read the script and I thought all the characters were just so good, just so filled in on the page and that rarely happens in comedy." The main character, Chris Brander (Ryan Reynolds), has both a soft side and a brutally manipulative side. Reynolds described his character's sensitive side, "[He] is just reacting to a very painful moment in his life. He doesn't quite have the maturity and growth to realize that he's spent ten years reacting to that. This is a gigantic life lesson and it's the exact wrong one to get. So he's got to go back ten years later and try to figure it out." Amy Smart, who plays Jamie Palomino, described her character's backstory, "She went to college, got into law school, had a nervous breakdown and moved back home. And then decided to do something that made her happy." She said that the director and writer worked to make her character more three-dimensional than the original script portrayed. She commented, "The problem is that a lot of writers tend to make their dream perfect girl so boring. And the truth is that you don't fall in love with the perfect girl. You fall in love with the flaws and the things that make her unique." With the character of Samantha James, Kumble and Davis created an entirely new, outrageous entity. Although Reynolds described her as, "Brittany Simpson Jessica Lohan," Kumble said, "We threw a lot of them in a blender. When Anna and I first met on this role, she was the MTV, the six-minute soundbite. They’re so A.D.D. and scattered that we can really kinda satirize that whole lot of them: Brittany, Paris, Ashley, I could keep going on. But we were also trying to give her heart. We didn’t want to make her so one note. We wanted to bring her down at levels. We were trying to say, 'This person could actually live on planet earth.'"
Although I've never cared much for sexual humor, the slapstick was done surprisingly well. When Chris Brander was launched down a hill to skid across the ice, I couldn't stop laughing. Not because of the stupid humor of simply launching a person down a snowhill in a gurney. No, they went a step further and sent him sliding across the ice face-down. I don't think I've laughed that hard since the "Meow" scene in Super Troopers. Kumble was particularly proud of the wedgie scene between the brothers, which they worked very hard to perfect. When asked about his influences in doing slapstick, he replied, "I had two teachers. One was Peter Farrelly, who taught me a lot about directing and taught me if it's funny, go for it. Don't listen to anybody, trust your gut. And I saw Pete's process. That stuff is brilliant. David Schwimmer, who I went to college with...He really kinda taught me about how to direct and how to do some of that stuff."
Yes, they pushed this film to its limits, but it seems to work. With the exception of a couple of raunchy scenes, I genuinely enjoyed it. It seems to me that few comedies tell a good story, develop interesting characters, and manage to stay in the "funny zone." Congratulations cast and crew of Just Friends, I'm going to take my husband to see this one (It's a rare day that I watch any movie twice!).
—Overview
—2. Overview Basic (dial up speed)
—3. Reviews and Blogs
—4. Cast and Crew
—5. Photo Pages
—6. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—7. Posters (comedy films)
—8. Production Notes (pdf)
—9. Spiritual Connections
—10. Presentation Downloads
Just Friends begins with a basic storyline, one familiar to almost everyone. It doesn't stop with the common experience however. It transcends the ordinary in almost every way. From the writing, to the filming, to the story and characters, this film went a step beyond the average movie-making experience. To begin with, the set location was extreme. Filmed in Saskatchewan in the middle of winter, both cameras and actors were dramatically affected by temperatures that fluctuated between negative 20 and negative 50 degrees. The crew scattered handwarmers throughout their clothes and the cameras were heated. In the production notes, Chris Klein comments, "When I walked out of the airport terminal, the cold punched me in the face." Of course, Ryan Reynolds had the luxury of wearing the fat suit. The way he described it, "The thing was made out of lava. It was minus 40 out there and I'd just sit out there and steam."
Beyond the trials of filming, the story itself underwent seven or eight years of development before director Roger Kumble came on the project and took the script apart again. Screenwriter Adam "Tex" Davis held on throughout the whole process. Kumble said, "I told Tex, 'Here's the deal,' cause I"m a writer too, 'I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna sit with you and you're gonna hate me, but I'm never gonna replace you. You're gonna be the only writer on a studio comedy.' And that never happens. Never happens. I said, 'Hate me now, love me later.' He was a great sport about it because we'd make him do things over and over." With the addition of changes, comments and improvisation scenes by the actors, it's amazing that the story flows so smoothly.
Roger Kumble deliberately set out to make a movie that would push the limits. He said, "So often, you have that R rated movie and they say it’s gotta go PG-13, and you end up hacking it up in the editing room. But we knew we were making a pg-13 movie. So with the producers and the studio and Ryan, [we thought] let’s think of the funniest PG-13 movie. If we could go right up to the line and try to do everything, it’d work." The risque picture of Samantha James (Anna Farris) will raise some eyebrows in the theaters, but Kumble did take it before the ratings board to make sure it stayed within the bounds of the PG-13 rating. He said, "This is an example of trying to take PG-13 as far as it will go." Kumble also fostered the idea of pushing the characters to the limits of humor. Ryan Reynolds joked, "With Roger you'd do ten versions of the same scene. He'd go, 'Let's do this one pissed off, the whole one, just be totally pissed off. Let's do this one like you've got a secret that is, you know, you've got a squirrel somewhere inside your body.' It'd be so random..." Amy Smart commented in the production notes, "One of Roger's greatest strengths is being able to determine how to tweak a scene, make it funny, dynamic and really come alive."
The story didn't stop with extreme humor. They chose to keep the story grounded in reality by making the characters three-dimensional. Chris Klien said, "I read the script and I thought all the characters were just so good, just so filled in on the page and that rarely happens in comedy." The main character, Chris Brander (Ryan Reynolds), has both a soft side and a brutally manipulative side. Reynolds described his character's sensitive side, "[He] is just reacting to a very painful moment in his life. He doesn't quite have the maturity and growth to realize that he's spent ten years reacting to that. This is a gigantic life lesson and it's the exact wrong one to get. So he's got to go back ten years later and try to figure it out." Amy Smart, who plays Jamie Palomino, described her character's backstory, "She went to college, got into law school, had a nervous breakdown and moved back home. And then decided to do something that made her happy." She said that the director and writer worked to make her character more three-dimensional than the original script portrayed. She commented, "The problem is that a lot of writers tend to make their dream perfect girl so boring. And the truth is that you don't fall in love with the perfect girl. You fall in love with the flaws and the things that make her unique." With the character of Samantha James, Kumble and Davis created an entirely new, outrageous entity. Although Reynolds described her as, "Brittany Simpson Jessica Lohan," Kumble said, "We threw a lot of them in a blender. When Anna and I first met on this role, she was the MTV, the six-minute soundbite. They’re so A.D.D. and scattered that we can really kinda satirize that whole lot of them: Brittany, Paris, Ashley, I could keep going on. But we were also trying to give her heart. We didn’t want to make her so one note. We wanted to bring her down at levels. We were trying to say, 'This person could actually live on planet earth.'"
Although I've never cared much for sexual humor, the slapstick was done surprisingly well. When Chris Brander was launched down a hill to skid across the ice, I couldn't stop laughing. Not because of the stupid humor of simply launching a person down a snowhill in a gurney. No, they went a step further and sent him sliding across the ice face-down. I don't think I've laughed that hard since the "Meow" scene in Super Troopers. Kumble was particularly proud of the wedgie scene between the brothers, which they worked very hard to perfect. When asked about his influences in doing slapstick, he replied, "I had two teachers. One was Peter Farrelly, who taught me a lot about directing and taught me if it's funny, go for it. Don't listen to anybody, trust your gut. And I saw Pete's process. That stuff is brilliant. David Schwimmer, who I went to college with...He really kinda taught me about how to direct and how to do some of that stuff."
Yes, they pushed this film to its limits, but it seems to work. With the exception of a couple of raunchy scenes, I genuinely enjoyed it. It seems to me that few comedies tell a good story, develop interesting characters, and manage to stay in the "funny zone." Congratulations cast and crew of Just Friends, I'm going to take my husband to see this one (It's a rare day that I watch any movie twice!).
—Overview
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home