Imagine you live in a hippie commune. Now imagine this commune is filled with some of the strangest and most annoying people on the planet ... and some of them are naked. That is the premise of Wanderlust, an off-kilter comedy which is more likely to make you cringe than laugh.
Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston play George and Linda, a well-off New York couple who dream of bigger and better things. Early in the film, George is fired, and the pair must travel to Atlanta to stay with George's unstable brother. Along the way, they come across a commune called Elysium, where they experience a wonderful night of unrivaled relaxation. But when they foolishly decide to return to the commune, ribald "hilarity" ensues.
The cast is a jumble of both good and bad, with some jokes bringing a goofy energy to the film, and others making you frown in confusion. As George, Rudd delivers a good fish-out-of-water performance. Baffled by the hippies, he creates a character who is relatable enough to be realistic, but manic enough to make us laugh. At one point I was in stitches watching George try to psyche himself up by talking to the mirror.
Unfortunately, Rudd's female counterpart fails to pull her weight. In the film's blandest role, Aniston is just "okay." She evokes her inner "Rachel" from Friends and hams it up for the camera, to varying effect.
The supporting cast is also a mixed bag. Justin Theroux stands out as the leader of the film's central commune, who just can't seem to grasp how far technology has come since he became a hippie. But many of the other characters are just plain annoying. George's brother, Rick (Ken Marino) is a complete jerk who has an anger problem. Rather than being even remotely funny, Marino is grating, and seeing him leave the screen is always a pleasure.
The film's writing and storyline are also hit-or-miss. The film's basic hippie plotline has a lot of potential, and despite its clich
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