Review: Long Shot snatches real and lasting laughs

If Long Shot wasn’t such an overt (and deep down, old-fashioned) rom-com, you could easily classify it as science fiction. How else to explain a living goddess like Charlize Theron possibly falling for a deadset slob like Seth Rogen?

If Long Shot wasn’t such an overt (and deep down, old-fashioned) rom-com, you could easily classify it as a work of science fiction.

How else to explain a world where a living goddess like Charlize Theron could possibly fall for a deadset slob like Seth Rogen?

Especially when Theron is playing an elite American politician and international diplomat poised to become the first female President, and Rogen the hoodie-wearing huffer of hooch inexplicably fated to be her next boyfriend?

And yet, somehow, Long Shot snatches real and lasting laughs from the jaws of improbability on a consistent basis.

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Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron snatch lasting laughs in Long Shot. Picture: AP

It is not the greatest comedy you will see this year, but it is a good one, largely thanks to the strong, opposites-attract chemistry of the two leads.

Proceedings kick off with a truly attention-grabbing set-piece establishing the rootsy writing credentials of Fred Flarsky (Rogen), initially working undercover as an investigative journalist embedded inside a neo-Nazi clubhouse.

After barely making it out alive — and then hot-headedly resigning from his job after ownership of his newspaper changes hands at a corporate level — Fred heads to a posh fundraiser with his best buddy Lance (Straight Outta Compton’s O’Shea Jackson Jr.) to drown his sorrows.

It is here Fred has a chance encounter with US Secretary of State and international style icon Charlotte Field (Theron).

Long Shot is a lively, throwaway pleasure to witness.

In an utterly unbelievable turn of events (of which there is many, many more to come) we learn that Fred and Charlotte already have themselves a bit of shared history. She used to be his neighbour back in the day, and his babysitter as well.

As luck would have it, Charlotte has a job opening on her campaign team for a writer who can punch up some jokes into her dour stump speeches.

She remembers Fred was pretty funny back when he was a kid. Would he like the gig?

What follows, in the middle act of the movie, is a lively, throwaway pleasure to witness, as Charlotte embarks on a worldwide tour that will set up the announcement of her candidacy, and Fred tags along for the ride.

This defiantly odd couple bond over a shared nostalgia for all things 1990s as they move from one exotic capital to the next.

Rogen and Theron possess a conversational ease that drives the film. Picture: AP

There is a conversational ease between the two leads that money just can’t buy, which gives Long Shot director Jonathan Levine the luxury of allowing dialogue-driven scenes to play out to their full value.

While the actual love scenes between Theron and Rogen do not come close to convincing, the way in which the pair talk and listen to each other is what persuades you to believe in them as a couple.

Though the humour skews mostly to Rogen’s skill set — broad, blue and just that little bit blokey — it is a game and up-for-anything Theron who ensures the best jokes hit their intended targets.

The two-hour running time is a stretch, but the surreal possibility of these two maybe making it to the White House is not.

Long Shot (M)

Rating: Three stars (3 out of 5)

Director: Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies)

Starring: Charlize Theron, Seth Rogen, June Diane Raphael, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Bob Odenkirk, Andy Serkis.

Love is blind, but laughs are there for all to see

For all things movies, follow Leigh on Twitter: @leighpaatsch