LOLA VERSUS DVD review

Waking up on her 29th birthday to be greeted by a marriage proposal from her long term boyfriend Luke (Joel Kinnaman), Lola (Greta Gerwig) starts to plan the wedding, only to have it all fall apart leaving her living the single life in the big city.

Lola Versus starts off promisingly, dispensing with the often seen marriage arrangements and messy break up in one quick opening montage. It's like a mini Katherine Heigl movie, all before the title appears. From there Lola has to adjust to single life in New York City, seeking the advice of Hamish Linklater as her cool, indie-ish platonic male friend and Zoe Lister Jones as her sassy-mouthed friend who's survived what the dating scene has to offer.

The one time Queen of Mumblecore hasn't forgotten her roots entirely, and his kooky, indie-crowd baiting romantic comedy serves to bridge the gap on her way to definite stardom. Unfortunately, the film's attempts to come across as indie don't appear effortless. The marketing department has gone to great lengths to remind us that this comes from the same studio as 500 Days of Summer, but it's also from the same studio that brought us Broken Lizard's Club Dread, so I can't really see how that matters.

Gerwig does have some good lines in this undoubtedly girly film ("I'm slutty, but I'm a good person"), but in a role that you'd normally see Krysten Ritter playing, writer/producer/co-star Zoe Lister Jones as Lola's unconventionally attractive and kooky best friend Alice, appears to have kept the best lines for herself ("I learnt everything I know about being a woman from 90210"). Gerwig may be in every scene of this vehicle for her accessibly kooky charm, but there's something clearly missing from her character.

Skirting dangerously close to being merely a film about hipsters, by hipsters and for hipsters, Lola Versus doesn't accurately portray the real dating world of New Yorkers, more a picture postcard version that sticks to all the cool streets and visits the coolest parties. Directed and co-scripted by Daryl Wein, who worked with Zoe Lister Jones on Breaking Upwards, there's definite potential shown, but nothing to make this film rise above any the higher standard of indie romantic comedies that have come out in recent years.

This may be a year in the life of Lola finding herself, with ill advised sexual unions and life advise from her friends and irritatingly free-thinking parents (Debra Winger and Bill Pullman as the hippest parental unit since Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson in Easy A), but Lola doesn't start the film as a fully fleshed out character, nor is she one come the film's contemplatory climax. Greta Gerwig is still a likeable screen presence, but this isn't the film to make a larger audience sit up and take notice. Let's put this one down as a nice attempt that tries too hard.

Verdict

Special Features:-

+ Outtakes

+ Nick "The Dick" Outtakes

+ Cheyenne Jackson Outtakes