What's Your Number? (2011)

Movie Photo
IMDb Rating
6.1 out of 10 (view IMDb page)

  • Not Rated Yet
(Based on 0 Ratings)
MPAA Rating:
R
Runtime:
106 Minutes
Genre(s):
Comedy
Director(s):
Mark Mylod">
Writer(s):
Gabrielle Allan (screenplay)
Jennifer Crittenden (screenplay)
and 1 more credit

Weekly Volcano's Review

Rev. Adam McKinney on September 28th, 2011

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Whenever I write about a bad movie, I try very hard not to blame the actors. After all, if I were an actor saddled with a terrible movie I might descend a little bit into a personal hell and deliver a mediocre performance, too. Very little does the film live or die based on the central performance. Having seen What's Your Number?, I have no clue if another actress in the lead role could've saved it. I just know Anna Faris did the film no favors.

I have enjoyed Anna Faris in the past-as a comedian in Scary Movie, and in a serious role in May. I'm not sure what went wrong, but this starring vehicle for Faris is a mighty s*** storm.

What's Your Number? opens with an exact copy of a scene from Bridesmaids - regardless of which was filmed first - whichdoes very little to dissuade unfavorable comparisons between the two movies. Unlike Kristen Wiig's real and frequently very funny performance in Bridesmaids, Faris delivers every line with the urgent desperation of a vaudevillian. Faris seems to have no control over the volume or intonation of her voice, rendering every scene a farcical schtick with a "Hey, check out how wacky I am!" undertone.

The story: Faris reads a Marie Clare article that says women, on average, have ten partners in their lifetime. Additionally, women who have had twenty or more partners are unlikely to ever find love. Faris has had twenty partners. So, she reasons, she needs to find her true love before sleeping with another guy. This leads to her considering that, perhaps, her true love is among her ex-boyfriends, and maybe she needn't meet someone new and cross that dastardly line of twenty.

To be clear: this is a bad premise. For a film that initially promises a fresh take on the cliché of sexually active women being considered sluts, and the implications of such a rumor, the film ultimately sides with the slut-shaming norm that movies and culture have been pounding into our heads since the beginning of time. Faris unquestioningly accepts the number of sexual partners she's had as an immediate negative - something to be ashamed of, and something to never be confessed to a potential boyfriend. Eventually, a promising new boyfriend casually exclaims how happy he is that she is still a virgin, even though she is in her thirties and has given no reason for him to believe that she's a virginal flower.

In her search through her ex-boyfriends, Faris becomes close with her neighbor, Colin (Chris Evans). As her neighbor, Chris Evans is effortlessly charming and funny - just as he was in The Losers and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Every scene he's in points an unflattering light on Faris' tone-deaf performance. As I've said, I hate pointing out actors' flaws, especially in a movie like this, where Meryl Streep may not have been able to revive the script.

But what I have to deal with is the actors I saw, and there was clearly something so very wrong with Anna Faris in What's Your Number? She's in every scene, and the movie's bad. I'm sorry for having to say so. – One and a half stars

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