Date Night

I recently watched an unusual documentary movie, My Date With Drew. It's built around a struggling man in Hollywood that decides to take the $1100 prize he won from a game show appearance and put it toward an effort to land a date with Drew Barrymore. So... shades of Being John Malkovich (in terms of its oddly specific weirdness), if it were a documentary.

But then, it's sort of hard to actually call this a documentary. It's more some guy's home movies with some moderately skilled editing work. It's filmed on a camcorder "borrowed" from Circuit City (where it will be returned after 30 days, in accordance with the store's return policy). It's not trying to make a point. It's "see how many corn kernels I can shove up my nostril" on a grander scale.

However, there's something oddly likable about the guy. And his friends are true friends to go along with it (whether "it" be a legitimate effort to land a date, or simply an aspiration to make a documentary). I mean, we're basically talking about stalker-type behavior here, so the protagonist is digging his way out of a hole from square one. The fact that you actually start rooting for him in the course of the film, cheering at his breakthroughs and frowning at his setbacks, is kind of amazing.

I have to spoil the ending of the movie to talk about the other thing I really liked about the movie, so if you suddenly have to the urge to watch this, skip the next paragraph.

As for the real winner in this movie? Why, it's Drew Barrymore herself. She finds out about this guy's efforts, and actually agrees to the date. And she's both charmed and charming. She's either an incredibly warm person who sees the good in people... or she's a truly fabulous actor who's able to muster an effortless performance for the duration of the date at the end of the movie. Either way, my praise to her.

So My Date With Drew actually turns out to be a bit of a ride that you get caught up in. Still, at the same time, it's barely a movie -- made so incidentally and on-the-cheap that you can't pretend it's more than it is. I'd rate it a B overall. One of the odder Netflix recommendations I've yet received.