We would all like to be in better shape, I’m thinking. Even people who work out every day always seem to want to do more to be healthier, to get into better physical condition. And goodness knows obesity and sedentary lifestyles seem to be the norm for a great many people in this country. I have to count myself among the out of shape but wanting to do something about it. I have gained and lost the same 40 or 50 pounds so many times in my life it’s now difficult to lose that weight and keep it off. I have a gym membership but rarely use it and can’t seem to find the time to get back to the gym on a regular basis.
Maybe I should get a personal trainer? Which leads me to RESULTS, a remarkable and good hearted movie about personal trainers, a new client and the mine field of dating in the 21st Century. Especially for people who are into physical training and may not know how to talk about their emotional life. Well really, does anybody know how to talk about their emotional life?
Results has the off kilter feel and unpredictability of a Coen Brothers movie, and for me that is a good thing. What we get is Kevin Corrigan,(Goodfellas, Superbad, Pineapple Express) as Danny, being told to get lost by a woman, his wife? girlfriend? It takes a while to find out but Results is the kind of movie that is not in any hurry to let us know what is going on. And it keeps us guessing as to what will happen next, to me that is a very good thing.
We next see Corrigan in a new home, a mansion really, spending money with no thought as to cost. He gets a membership at the gym run by Guy Pearce, as Trevor, (using his own Australian accent for the first time, that I’m aware of, since THE PROPOSITION in 2005). Corrigan is playing a barely articulate, highly dysfunctional New Yorker, a fish out of water in Austin, Texas (we eventually find out the location.) We also eventually find out that he inherited a sizable sum of money, in a manner I still don’t quite understand.
He has few social skills and seems more than a little weird and creepy, but because he has money he signs up for a personal trainer from Pearce’s gym. Enter Coby Smulders, as Kat, the trainer (how nice to see her in something other than a Marvel franchise movie, not that there’s anything wrong with the Marvel universe.) And how nice to see that Ms Smulders can carry the lead female role in a movie, and still look drop dead gorgeous without any makeup.
Danny tries to get in shape by following Kat’s personal training regimen. He tells Trevor that he wants to “get tough, be able to take a hit and not get hurt!” We have our doubts that Danny, with his paunch, pasty white skin, poor eating habits, drinking, pot smoking and badly thinning hair will ever get into the kind of shape exhibited by Trevor and Kat. Kat tells him as much, and like a Shakespeare romantic comedy everybody gets the wrong ideas about everybody else. Danny tries to romance Kat with hired musicians and catered dinners in his rented mansion, much to her horror. We the audience and every other character in the movie know that Trevor and Kat are perfect for each other, but they argue, get together, fight, break up and get back together and, well… I hate to give spoilers but everything comes right in the end. And yes, it is quite subtle but the old message that “money can’t buy happiness” is there, but lots more is going on in Results, this is not a typical romantic comedy, by no means.
Results is that rarity among modern movies, a feel good, truly funny and romantic comedy with, and this is important, characters we come to know and care about, very deeply. Set in and filmed mostly in Austin, Texas, the independent film capital of the western world, Results is a wonderful movie.
Pearce has never been better and quite frankly Smulders is astonishing. I sincerely hope she gets more parts, written as well as Kat, she has serious acting chops and she ought to be allowed to show them. And Corrigan, well he IS Kevin Corrigan, the slightly lopsided New Yorker that cannot help but be lovable, no matter if he even plays the bad guy. Giovanni Ribisi shines, but then he always does, as a contract lawyer who, more or less befriends Danny. And Anthony Michael Hall, of all people, is hysterical as a Russian cable tv fitness guru with his own special, but very basic equipment. A whole other movie could be created around his character of Grigory, and probably will be some day.
And finally it is somewhat exhausting to see a movie with so much working out, Pearce and Smulders both are playing characters who work out every single day, and their stamina shows it. But Results is also inspiring. It has inspired me to start using my gym membership more often, maybe even…get a personal trainer? And that is another good thing, very good.
We’ll see what happens, in the meantime I do have to get to the gym and get on the stair master for a while. Be seeing you!
4 1/2 of 5 Stars
RESULTS is currently playing in St. Louis at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater
