December 28, 2008
"I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With" was written, directed, and co-produced by Jeff Garlin, Larry David's sidekick from "Curb Your Enthusiam", and Garlin also plays the leading man. As a romantic lead, he's certainly unconventional but both funny and surprisingly charming. On "Cur...( read more)b Your Enthusiam", he plays a comparatively grounded individual to the neurotic Larry and his (Garlin's) lunatic of a wife, and here he plays a similar nice, fairly normal guy. The film, with the peculiar title deriving from a line spoken by Comedy Central star Sarah Silverman, is a casual loveletter to Chicago in a similar manner to how much Woody Allen films embrace the city of Manhattan. Being from Illinois myself, it was good to see the city in something that doesn't involve gunfights and special effects. Garlin's film is rather low-key but welcoming, and although it doesn't necessarily break new ground in the romantic comedy genre, it's a nice comfort film that is bound to entertain you throughout it's short running time.
Garlin plays James, a 39-year-old actor who still lives with his mother (Mina Kolb). The fact that he lives at home is not supposed to be slapstick comedy, rather it's a character trait that makes him identifiable as lonely and unfulfilled. When he is asked why he still lives with his mother, he simply states that "he doesn't know what she'd do without him". Little lines like that are what make Garlin so likable in this film - he has enough character flaws to seem human, but he comes off as completely authentic and legitimately nice.
James is part of an improv comedy group, which is a slice of Garlin's and the rest of the cast's real lives as most of them share the common thread of formerly being a part of Second City. As the film opens, James has been dumped and is now indulging in an absurd amount of sweets from a small shop he frequents. Throughout the film, Garlin returns to this same store, and then eats his snacks on top of his car in front of Wrigley Field. This was one of those little Chicago touches that people from the area will certainly familiarize with.
James eventually meets Beth (Sarah Silverman), who works at an ice cream shop. Within a minute of conversing, her flirting is so blatant that she asks James if he's ever engaged in a certain sexual act I will not spoil. James is not sure if this is an invitation or just morbid curiosity. The two become friends and eventually sleep with each other, however Beth seems far from James' type and not in it for the long haul. The audience will recognize immediately that the one for James is actually a school teacher by the name of Stella (Bonnie Hunt).
One of the best things about "I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With" is how relaxing it is in tone. Much like "Curb Your Enthusiasm", it's dialogue is very much improvised and therefore feels very conversational. It also shares that kind of offbeat comedy that we see frequently from Larry David's work such as Garlin criticizing a hot dog vendor for having a guy in a pirate costume serve samples outside. The film never becomes more than a lighthearted and low-key affair, nor does it overstep it's boundaries. It's a quick, clean, and quirky romantic comedy and it makes no attempt to make you think otherwise.
That also is one of the flaws of the film, however, in that it's so conventional that it can at times seem tiresome and predictable. Although this kind of conventional is more pleasing than the umpteenth formulaic Hollywood romantic comedy, it's still not giving us much to think about. Also, as irresistible as Sarah Silverman is on her self-titled show from Comedy Central, she's completely unlikable here. She has that cute childlike innocence on her show, and here she is meant to be more of a sexy temptress. I won't say she's completely miscast since she certainly has her moments, but I think she was far less likable than she should have been. There's never a question which woman the audience will be rooting for, so we don't have a lot to invest in.
"I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With" is completely simple and the equivalent of comfort food. It's short, has a likable lead, and it's often cute and funny. While it's certainly not something to go out of your way to see, it's not a bad thing to watch on cable on a rainy day.
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