REVIEW: Wanderlust

Jennifer Aniston. She's one of those actresses that you just know exactly what you are going to get. Just look at her resume - Just Go With It, The Bounty Hunter, Marley & Me and The Break-Up.

It usually involves a middle-aged couple going through some difficulties and need to "find themselves" in order to carry on or finally call an end to their relationship. They're quite light-hearted, usually light on laughs and will never ever feature Aniston naked.

So, let's have a look at the plot for Wanderlust. Linda (Aniston) and George (Paul Rudd) are forced to move out of their studio apartment in New York City after he looses his job and forced to live with and work for his annoying brother Rick (Ken Morino), in order for them to get their finances back on track.

So far, so good.

On their road-trip to Ricks, Linda and George stumble across a hippy community, called Elysium, who live in the woods with a carefree and open lifestyle. (This is the part where the couple will need to "find themselves"!) Instead of living with Rick, they both decide to give the Elysium lifestyle a chance and see if it's for them.

However, where Wanderlust is different to other Aniston vehicles is that this one is actually quite funny. The hippies are quite stereotyped in the film - non-violent, guitar playing, pot-smoking and in one case, nudist (with the worst CGI penis' ever committed to screen... something I thought I would never say!!) But, the comedy from the complete differences to George and Linda's previous lifestyle in NYC to the new carefree lifestyle is quite funny. Oh, and Anniston also gets topless in a protest against the uber-company wanting to build a casino on their land. While her breasts are pixelated, in a complete "bloke moment", this will be the closest we will probably ever get to seeing Aniston topless!!

The main issue I had with Wanderlust is the difference in acceptance of Elysium from George and Linda. While George struggles to be so carefree and open, Linda just completely accepts it with open arms. When George tells her that they can be open sexually at Elysium (as the rest of the hippies live this way and have sex with whoever they please), Linda then sleeps with someone that same night.

She then blames her choice on George. Call me wrong and call me a "bloke" for not understanding, but surely her sleeping with someone else was her choice. While George "OK-ed" it to make his wife happy, she still could have said no.

So much like the character of Summer in (500) Days of Summer, Linda became a bit of a cold-hearted bitch - something I wasn't expecting off Anniston! When George was trying everything to get her back, I was thinking "why bother?!"

However, this didn't really get in the way of the laughs, and like I said, I was surprised at how much I laughed during Wanderlust. I was expecting a light-hearted but dry American rom-com, but it was actually a bit deeper than I expected and a lot funnier. I shouldn't have been surprised though, because if I'd have researched the film properly beforehand, I would have realised that the film was produced by Judd Apatow (Knocked Up and Forgetting Sarah Marshall).

It seems that this time, Aniston was not just in it for an "easy ride" and actually made a film to be proud of!

*** 1/2 / *****