Update: Production Weekly tweets that Andy Samburg is eyeing the role of Wallace.
We weren’t that keen on “In Search Of A Midnight Kiss” when it was released in the summer of 2008. With a very self-conscious tip of the hat to Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset,” and Claire Denis “Vendredi Soir,” it was, in places, quite irritating and amateurish, but it showed a great feel for Los Angeles, and enough solid filmmaking that we thought director Alex Holdridge would be one to watch.
It’s taken a little time for him to line up his next project, but he’s just signed to direct the romantic comedy “The F Word” at Fox Searchlight. The script, by Elan Mastai, made the Black List in 2008, and follows Wallace and Chantry, two twentysomethings who meet and spark off each other at a party. Chantry has a long-term boyfriend however, and so the two attempt to ignore their attraction and become platonic friends.
We read the script a while back, and for the most part, it’s pretty good. The set up is just different enough from “When Harry Met Sally” to let it stand on its own, the characters are well drawn and likable, and the dialogue’s mostly very funny. Fox Searchlight seem keen to repeat the success of last year’s “(500) Days Of Summer,” which this script resembles, although it’s a little less emotionally raw than that, and similarly can’t quite help itself from going broad and slapsticky every so often (although in places it does work nicely — a slightly contrived scene where one character gets trapped in a too-small dress in a changing room turns into a surprisingly sexy moment between the two characters).
It’s almost tailor-made for Holdridge, and if he can cast it right, and give it the same soulful quality that saved “In Search Of A Midnight Kiss” from itself, this could be one of the more promising romantic comedies of recent years.
