| Set at a gym, Results is occasionally funny, sometimes interesting, but it's paper-thin plot means there's nothing to drive the film forward and the film has relatively little to say as it goes next to nowhere. It's the characters that form the story for the movie, and they are well-crafted characters, you just wish they had more to say or do. It's also not set at a gym, it just introduces the characters there. | | 2015
Directed by: Andrew Bujalski
Screenplay by: Andrew Bujalski
Starring: Kevin Corrigan, Cobie Smulders, and Guy Pearce
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Independently wealthy Danny (Kevin Corrigan) decides to hire a personal trainer since he has the money but nothing else in his life. He's newly divorced and now is just looking for someone or something to do. Trevor (Guy Pearce) is a gym owner and fully believes in his philosophical outlook for his gym that all elements of one's life need to be in sync to be healthy and happy. He can't get much of an answer out of Kevin for why he wants a personal trainer, and for whatever reason, Trevor just lets that drop because the film will look into that later. There are definite issues with characters' motivations and the film's motivations getting confused with one another.
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Cobie Smulders and Guy Pearce in RESULTS, a Magnolia Pictures release.
Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. Photo credit: Ryan Green |
Kat (Cobie Smulders) is an ambitious trainer – very abrasive but will get the results. But past the introduction of these characters very little happens. Danny does nothing in his life and his loneliness and lack of ambition doesn't fit well with Kat. Trevor's trying to expand his business, but has a tendency of forming inappropriate romantic relationships. The film seems to think we'll be surprised by the story that forms in the second half, but these are such well acted characters that their past and future are known before it's told to us – leading to the problem that the film really doesn't have a whole lot to say.
I would have loved to have spent more time with Smulders' Kat or Pearce's Trevor – both of whom made bad decisions but were very compelling. But the lead was Danny and he was boring, unsympathetic and worthless. A bit of a plot forms half-way through the movie, but it was very odd how Trevor, in particular, was so clueless about everything happening around him. And then the conclusion to the movie was for a genre it never said it was.
Results crafted three unique characters, two of whom could have easily carried a movie, and they were even given some pretty funny dialogue. But in between a few scenes of comedy and a few intriguing scenes, very little is happening. The results just aren't there for the time invested in these characters. |
