I was right to fear Judd Apatow and his band of rom-com artisans.  Did I just call them artisans?  Anyway, this movie was very funny at times, but I left frustrated anyway.  It had all of the highs and lows I’ve come to expect of an Apatow production.  Extremely funny moments that have a spark of realism to them, offensive shock humor for the boys, a lack of editing, a barrel of shmarm, overlong scenes, and about an hour more movie than was actually necessary.

So, what went right?  Well, without recounting specific scenes in detail, there was some good humor here with several scenes eliciting deep belly laughter from me.  There were a couple of secondary characters who were interesting, well played by Chris Pratt and Alison Brie, and who had the best story in the movie.  I guess that means they probably should have made the movie about that story because the main story didn’t do it for me.

The main storyline and characters Tom and Violet, played by Jason Segel and Emily Blunt respectively, really missed the mark.  It involves Tom giving up his career aspirations to support those of Violet.  Violet’s opportunity happened to come just right after Tom had proposed to Violet.  Violet’s new job forces them to move to Michigan, which for some reason means they can’t get married.  I can’t figure out why they didn’t just get married then, so, that’s a big plothole blown in the side of the film.  It distracted me, because there was no good reason for it.  Anyway, you get to suffer through Tom and Violet’s relationship as it goes into the depths of meh.  The problem here is that it felt so contrived and was lacking in any sort of human chemistry.  Neither of these people are likable and you never feel like they even really like each other.  Tom is a mopey schlep and Violet a sort of sociopathic nerf-herder.  I’m not sure why I called her a nerf-herder, other than that I didn’t want to call her a bitch.  In any case, the lack of chemistry between the characters and with the audience made this film unwatchable at times.

Then there were the myriad issues with the film itself.  Pacing was tough because the movie was so badly edited.  There were scenes that went on and on that added nothing to the film and were only useful if they happened to be funny.  Some of them were okay, but others were really tough to watch.  There was a good quarter of the film that they could have cut and it would have only improved the experience.

Somewhere along the way, Judd made enough money on his movies that apparently any sort of editorial oversight was lost.  That’s something that’s going to have to get better because every one of his movies seemingly suffers the same flaws.  I feel like I’ve really beaten up on this movie, but it was generally enjoyable.  I had a good time with it, even if the final act dragged on forever.  If you’re badly in need of a new rom-com, by all means see it.  Just don’t expect to come away fully satisfied.

2 1/2 stars.