(PHOTO PROVIDED VIA IMDB)
***WARNING: REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS***
(I FIGURE IT'S OKAY SINCE THE MOVIE IS 5 YEARS OLD)
RELEASE DATE: July 25, 2013
RUNNING TIME: 1 hour and 30 minutes
DIRECTOR: Joe Swanberg
WRITER: Joe Swanberg
STARRING:
Olivia Wilde as Kate
Jake Johnson as Luke
Anna Kendrick as Jill
Ron Livingston as Chris
Jason Sudeikus as Gene Dentler
Drinking Buddies explores the friendship of two characters that seem to be attached at the hip. The characters that I am referring to are Kate and Luke. They seem like they belong together, that they want so badly to be together. But they are in fact with other people.
Kate has a boyfriend Chris who seems that he likes her and thinks that maybe he could possible love her. Luke is engaged to to Jill who appears to know what she wants and looks to love him as much as he loves her. Everything kind of seems normal for the two couples at first. In fact I felt like Kate and Luke would end up "accidentally" hooking-up during one of their many beer outings after work. They work at a beer brewery. Drinking was their number one past time activity.
Turns out that their respective better halves end up discovering that they may in fact have feelings for each other while the two couples are away together for a weekend trip. Kate ends up getting dumped by Chris and Jill plans a secret trip with Chris to see where her feelings truly lay.
While Chris and Jill are away, Kate and Luke spend a lot of time together. Here I found myself hoping that they ended up together because I like said earlier, they seem so damn good together. Luke decided that he is going to be a good friend to Kate and help her move. She wants to move due to the fact that she says that her old apartment is too big and it was meant for two people (Chris). During these few days we see hints that Kate wants something more while Luke is being a good friend and vise versa.
As it seems the two are getting closer, things blow up a little when Luke hurts himself moving her couch and then getting into a fight with one of Kate's old neighbors. This seemed to turn Kate off and she called in other co-workers for help. Luke and Kate had plans to have dinner later in the day to celebrate her move. Kate decided last minute that she would prefer not to do this and go hang out with the guys from work.
This puts strain in their friendship because Kate accuses Luke of wanting something more when she doesn't and that he should go home to his fiance (who is on a trip with Chris). After the big fight, Luke does go home and discovers that Jill had come home early from her trip. She had felt guilty and realized that her heart belonged to Luke. She ended up telling Luke the truth. Luke ended up forgiving her.
A few days later, Luke finds Kate in the cafeteria at work. They still hadn't spoken since their fight. No words are said. Luke sits next to Kate and silently offers her some of his lunch. She then silently offers him some of her food in return. They then laugh and the word is back to normal. the movie ends.
I really liked this film. It was funny when it meant to be and it was intense and sad when it meant to be as well. I give Drinking Buddies 4 out of 5 stars. I heard this movie did not get that well of a reception when it was released. I'm not really sure why. The film was solid.
