FRIENDSHIP  (In theatres)

After a brief hiatus, yearning for levity and laughter, heeding vocal praise for director Andrew DeYoung’s “Friendship”, I scurried to my local theatre to imbibe in fictional fluff; alas, what could/should have been a delightful jaunt into a male bonding scenario morphed into a “fatal attraction” dirge; a gloomy, predictable plot that sunk into derisory detritus. After a promising beginning “Craig” (Tim Robinson), a simplistic advertising executive, a certifiable candidate for the Autism Spectrum Disorder, meets his next door neighbor “Austin” (Paul Rudd), a local weatherman whose charismatic charm infects Craig and virtually changes his life; there are moments of goodness where the seeds of friendship blossom with genuine tenderness and Craig blooms, only to be dumped by feckless Austin, hence the promising tone of the film descends into mania. Craig’s wife “Tami” (Kate Mara) a cancer survivor and florist is the “sympathy” component, polished refinement.

As the film marches toward oblivion with sewer-sleuthing, drug dementia, blithering banter, viewers lapse into a well-earned inertia; “Friendship” has never been delineated so poorly.

TWO STARS!!

Peneflix