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Film Review – Walk Of Shame

Directed by Steven Brill
Screenplay by Steven Brill
Cast Elizabeth Banks, James Marsden, Gillian Jacobs, Sarah Wright, Ethan Suplee
Genre Comedy
Rating ***

The movie begins with a series of hilarious video clips and mishaps that happen to reporters as they do their jobs. One particular video shows a reporter Meghan Miles (Elizabeth Banks) being attacked by cats.
Meghan lands an interview at CNB, a larger network in the US and after a series of questions, she is asked by the main network executives one final question: If there were any “dirt” in her past, to which she answered, “I’m a good girl”.
Two weeks after the interview, her producer, Dan Karlin (Willie Garson) receives a call from the network saying that they are down to the last two applicants, Wendy Chang and Meghan herself. The decision would come down to one of the two. Later that night, Meghan’s two friends arrive at her home inviting her to a club. However, the two find Meghan, who is distressed about her relationship that ended recently, depressed. So they convince her to go out with them, getting her so drunk and that is how the story of her walk of shame begins. This is most definitely my kind of movie. I totally enjoyed it. It had me laughing through each scene. I have always enjoyed Elizabeth Banks. As an actor she is a true comedian. Her roles always have me captivated, ingesting every word she says and sitting at the edge of the sofa.
Her supporting characters however did not do her much justice especially the roles of Gillian Jacobs who plays Rose and Sarah Wright who plays Denise. I did not get to see much of James Marsden who plays Gordon, Meghan’s love interest. He is also another good actor to look out for. Perhaps if he had a larger role in this movie, it would have complemented Elizabeth more.

The picture quality is great and the storyline one can relate to, especially if you are a younger viewer. It made me think of how easily people are misjudged and mistreated because of how they may look on the outside. It’s one of those movies that teaches you life lessons and also makes you laugh at the same time.
Walk of Shame did not receive many good reviews and did not do so well at the box office. Maybe this is linked to the fact that it was directed by Steven Brill of whom I haven’t heard much previously except for his previous work, Movie 43. This was not entirely poor but it seemed kind of pointless to the extent that you don’t know what message the movie is trying to convey. But Hollywood has a reputation of filming a few movies for the sake of it, so this is no shocker.
A user named db-beurylaw on the www.imdb.com website commented, “The basis of good comedy is that there is an element of truth. That’s why this movie works. I could see a person having a night of drinking go horribly wrong. If you are suddenly dumped in the wrong part of town, without your modern things (car, credit cards, cellphone, etc.), it’s amazing how vulnerable you can suddenly become. (I once needed to be picked up and my cellphone was dead. I suddenly realized I didn’t know friends and family’s phone numbers.) The stuff in this movie could happen, although probably not all in the same night. The movie relies totally on Elizabeth Banks, who is awesome. I loved her in 30 Rock and she can carry a comedy.”

 

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