On paper, That Awkward moment must have seemed like a male orientated Sex and the City: three singles guys (Zac Efron, Miles Teller, and Michael B. Jordan) living in New York, make a pact to only have one night stands and not get into a relationship, until one by one they find love, and try to keep it from each other. It must have also worked on paper, with the script being named as one of the best comedy scripts in the 2010 Black List, a list of the best un-produced scripts in Hollywood. Unfortunately, it fails on the big screen, adding up to an unfunny, cliche ridden mess.
O.k., lets get the good out of the way first. The cast are charming enough, and much better than this movie deserves, with Efron is likable, even when he is being a smug little shit, as Jason, who, because he's portrayed by the biggest name in the cast, gets the biggest share of the screen time, and his romance with Ellie (Imogen Poots) can be sweet at times. The two have great chemistry, which helps when their storyline falls into so much cliche. Teller does his usual quick fire banter schtick, usually being at the center of the movies few funny moments, and Jordan, while underused, does offer solid support as the voice of reason to the other two's views on the opposite sex.
But no amount of charm and chemistry can really save this. I will admit it starts off well enough, some spiky, bawdy humour, and the addition of Mackenzie Davis as the trio's female wing man does promise something different from the usual romantic comedy fare, but that soon gives way to scenarios and cliches we have seen time and time again. Even Davis, after being propped up as an equal to Efron, Teller, and Jordan, soon becomes just another love interest with nothing to do. The story does show a lot of promise early on, but soon well worn cliches come into play, and it falls into predictability far too quickly, the humour giving way to soppy sentimentality. The narrative lurches from plot point to plot point with no real structure, and it is pretty easy to get confused with what is going on. Especially near the end of the film, where scenes just sort of happen, mainly down to a rush to wrap up the story, with events in the story completely overturned minutes after they happen.
A competent and likable cast can't really save this unfunny mass of cliches, that really only works as a date movie if you find yourself out of any other options.
