Along Came Polly

Along Came Polly

Film poster
Directed by John Hamburg
Produced by Danny DeVito
Michael Shamberg
Stacey Sher
Written by John Hamburg
Starring Ben Stiller
Jennifer Aniston
Debra Messing
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Hank Azaria
Bryan Brown
Alec Baldwin
Music by Theodore Shapiro
Cinematography Seamus McGarvey
Edited by William Kerr
Nick Moore
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date
  • January 16, 2004 (2004-01-16) (United States)
Running time
 90 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $42 million
Box office $173 million[1]

Along Came Polly is a 2004 American romantic comedy film written and directed by John Hamburg, starring Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston in the lead roles.

Plot

Reuben Feffer (Ben Stiller), a life insurance underwriter, is celebrating his honeymoon with newlywed wife, Lisa Kramer (Debra Messing), on the island of St. Barts, but catches her having sex with Claude (Hank Azaria), a French scuba instructor. Returning home to New York alone, he attempts to piece his life back together. Reuben goes to an art gallery with his friend, Sandy Lyle (Philip Seymour Hoffman), where he runs into former junior high school classmate Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston).

Reuben and Polly begin dating, with her introducing him to activities he once wrote off as "too risky", such as eating at a Moroccan restaurant and salsa dancing, which culminates with the pair enthusiastically having sex together, with Reuben shouting "50" as he orgasms. The contrast between their two personalities is a source of comedy throughout the film until Lisa returns and tells him she wants to reconcile their relationship. Meanwhile, Sandy, a self-centered, former teen idol, is trying to make a comeback by having a documentary filmed about his starring role as Judas in an amateur production of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Reuben is torn between the free-spirited Polly and the safe and familiar Lisa. To solve this issue, he enters information about Polly and Lisa into a computer insurance program which measures risk. The computer tells him that, despite his numerous blunders with her, Polly is the best choice for him. Polly joins Reuben on a sailing trip where he is to inspect Leland Van Lew (Bryan Brown), a high-risk client, but she is offended when she sees his risk analysis of her. She rejects his proposal to move in together, telling him that he would be better off going back to Lisa.

Back home, Reuben tries talking to Polly, but to no avail. He eventually invites Lisa to Sandy's opening show, where he learns that Polly is leaving New York for Cincinnati in a few hours. After a speech given by his father, Irving (Bob Dishy), to Sandy about not living in the past, Reuben realizes he wants to be with Polly and not Lisa, and he rushes to her apartment to stop her from leaving. Polly is not convinced she should stay with him, so Reuben eats food off the ground to prove he is capable of taking risks.

Reuben and Polly vacation on the same beach where Lisa and he had their honeymoon. Reuben again encounters Claude, but instead of being angry, he thanks Claude before heading into the water with Polly to join Van Lew on his new boat.

Cast

Reception

Box office

The film opened at #1 at the U.S. Box office, earning $27,721,185 USD in its opening weekend, ending the month-long reign of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.[2]

Critical response

Along Came Polly received negative reviews; critics commented that Aniston and Stiller did not make a convincing couple. The film holds an approval rating of 25% at Rotten Tomatoes based on 157 reviews (40 positive, 117 negative).[3] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score from 1 to 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film a 44 based on 35 critics.[4] The film was a financial success, making $172 million at the box office worldwide off a $42 million budget.[5]

Accolades

Ben Stiller earned a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Actor for his performance in the film (as well as for Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Envy and Starsky and Hutch).

References

  1. ↑ http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Along-Came-Polly#tab=summary
  2. ↑ Kaufman, Gil (January 20, 2004). "'Along Came Polly' ... And Down Went The 'King'". MTV Movie News. Retrieved 2011-05-25.
  3. ↑ "Along Came Polly (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved June 12, 2010.
  4. ↑ http://www.metacritic.com/movie/along-came-polly
  5. ↑ "Along Came Polly". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 12, 2010.
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