11:37 AM
ArtsNFashion
Director: Michael
Dowse
Cast: Daniel
Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan, Adam Driver, Mackenzie Davis, Rafe Spall, Megan Park,
Jemima Rooper, Rebecca Northam
By James Colt Harrison
It’s summer and it’s time for some light and
breezy romantic comedies that are as transparent as Swiss cheese. ”What If”
fills the bill for lighter-than-air entertainment. Even the title was given a
blast of helium when it was changed from ”The F Word” to the more bland “What
If” for delicate American audiences.
When the leading man has grown up in front of
our eyes as Harry Potter, debuted on the stage stripping himself of all his
clothes and going bare naked in “Equus” (Best Leading Actor), we get the point
that Daniel Radcliffe is now a young leading man. Well, sort of a baby version
of a leading man. But cute, anyway.
Cute is necessary for this film to work.
Radcliffe (Wallace) has dropped out of medical school after a bad relationship
has devastated him. He has vowed not to get involved with another girl and has
given up sex for the duration. His best friend Allan---the comical Adam
Driver---and local sex hunk dives into a relationship with passionate Nicole
(Mackenzie Davis) and marries her. It’s sort of an incentive for Wallace to get
back into life again. Allan introduces Wallace to his cousin, airy Chantry (Zoe
Kazan), an animator. She’s much involved with her live-in boyfriend Ben (Rafe
Spall).
Wallace and Chantry seem to have a lot in
common and become great friends. They are funny and sweet characters and that
word “cute” creeps in again. Chantry is devoted to her grounded and ambitious
boyfriend Ben. But Wallace has bigger eyes for Chantry than he is willing to
admit. And does she have more than friendly feelings for Wallace. They play cat
and mouse emotionally and try to figure out where they stand with each other.
This is not a new situation between boy-girl
relationships. There must have been a million movies before this dealing with
the same dilemma. Radcliffe himself said, “In a lot of romantic comedies I
think it can feel a little too easy on people’s relationships but this film
accurately takes in some of the complexity of people’s relationships. And it is
really, really funny. That was the kind
of main thing that drew me towards it.”
Director Dowse praised Radcliffe’s performance
by saying “I think he’s totally accessible, beautifully flawed and immediately
likeable as an actor, almost like a young Jack Lemmon. People inherently end up
rooting for him.”
As Wallace’s best friend and room-mate Allan,
Adam Driver’s comedy acting chops dominate all his scenes. Ms. Davis enthused,
”Adam Driver is so funny and wonderful in this movie and really bizarre. He’s
so smart and such a good actor and it was such a wonderful experience to get to
work with him and improv with him and, laugh and have him make me laugh all the
time.”
The major portion of the
film was shot in Toronto. Not usually known as a “romantic” city such as Venice
or Paris, the crew used the water settings to great advantage. One of the
funniest scenes in the film is a night-time skinny dipping at the beach. And,
necessary to the story line, the cast and crew had to go to Dublin, Ireland for
some scenes to wrap up the movie. It opens the film up visually and gives it
the correct brightness for the overall look.
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