Rarely have I actively disliked the lead characters of a movie as much as I did in Just Friends. They just got on my nerves sooooooo much that I just could not feel sympathy for them (although I did sympathise with a character who was obviously meant to be a foil), and the end message was kinda screwed up too.
Chris Brander (Ryan Reynolds) is a fat teen whose best friend and secret crush is the hot cheerleader Jamie Palomino (Amy Smart). The night they graduate, Chris decides to declare his feelings for her by writing in her yearbook, but the small party he intended turns into a whole school blowout. Daunted, he nonetheless proceeds to try and make her read his message but is interrupted by Dusty Dinkleman (Chris Klein) a pimply, stuttering singer who also has a crush on Jamie, and her quaterback ex-bf Tim. In the course of things, Tim's yearbook and Chris' are swapped and Tim read the love declaration to the entire party, further ridicule ensues when Jamie reiterates that they remain best friends. Humiliated, Chris declares that he'll show them all and runs away to LA. A decade later, Chris has lost all the weight and turned into a womanising record company exec. In the course of trying to sign the Paris Hilton-esque Samantha James (Anna Faris) to his company, he and Samantha end up stranded in his home town and the new Chris attempts to show the town what he has become and win Jamie's heart.
Now that may sound like a pretty unoffensive movie. Pretty common, in fact. But here is a list of some of my grievances.
1. Chris is obviously picked on at school by Jamie's other *friends* and yet while she makes some token protests, she keeps the people who have obviously spent their entire lives bullying him around her. Some best friend!
2. While Samantha is pretty clingly and stupid, but Chris at times is almost downright abusive towards her and seemingly has no interest in her well-being. For example, she falls off a balcony at the Mall and sustains a concussion, yet he keeps putting her in the care of his younger brother who obviously can't handle her.
3. None of the townspeople can comprehend that Chris has changed in the decade he has been away, and insult him when he attempts to show that he has changed. Key scene - when the waitress gives him pancakes covered in chocolate and cream and he goes to refuse it due to his adult diet, then Jamie acts as if he is majorly insulting the waitress by turning it down.
4. The characters' immaturity in general. Chris allows himself to be goaded by children when playing ice hockey, and instead of trying to minimising the damage, takes the children out. I can understand pride but that is ridiculous.
5. Dusty as the villlian is shown to be acting in a particular way to get Jamie to fall in love with him as *revenge* for her relegating him as just a friend. But that's pretty much the same as what Chris is doing.
6. The pair sleep together in Chris' old bed but don't have sex because Chris realises that perhaps Jamie will only ever want to be friends. Jamie however thinks she's been humiliated because he didn't make a move on her. Hello?! She spent the entire time prior to that reiterating that they are just friends, treating him accordingly and then being pissed that he didn't act!?
7.We are shown that the new Chris is a shallow asshole but when he reverts to his prior self, they get together. But he acted like that all through high school when he was fat and scored nothing. So Jamie is also shown to be a shallow asshole who only dates Chris now that he's rich and built.
In the end, I ended up feeling sorry for Samantha of all people, because despite being a deluded talentless hack, she seemed to genuinely like Chris, although whether it's just to forward her career is in question, but she as a person stays true to who she is and is never painted in a different light to what she is. Who would have thought I'd like the bimbo out of all the characters, eh?
2/10
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