Wanderlust

Actors:  Paul Ruud, Jennifer Anniston, Justin Theroux, Alan Alda, Malin Ackerman, Joe Lo Truglio
Rating:  6 out of 10, a Netflix rental that I probably won’t buy because it just misses.  This comedy has Ruud fired from his job and trying out life in a Georgia commune.  I will watch any movie Ruud is in and he plays the same character he seems to play in half a dozen other movies but there was just something missing in this one, at least for me.  There didn’t seem to be a lot of chemistry between him and Anniston.  I was surprised to learn that they are virtually the same age because I left the movie thinking that Anniston was too old for him.  The hardest part for me was that Anniston was just not believable as a gal who couldn’t figure out what she wanted to do with her life.  I was kind of disappointed because she was so good in a couple of recent comedies, Just Go For It and Horrible Bosses.  Theroux is strong again as the hippy too good to be true and the rest of the loonies in the hippie colony are stand outs as well.  The sub-plot of the evil brother just did not work.  The writing overall was very smart and there were some great throw away lines.  There was also one extremely uncomfortable scene where Ruud is obviously ad libbing while talking to the mirror.  This is usually one of Ruud’s strengths but most of this scene should have been left on the cutting room floor.
MVP:  Alda as the drug addled aged hippie, Carvin, still got it