Review: Along Came Polly

Directed by: John Hamburg

Written by: John Hamburg

Starring: Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Debra Messing, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alec Baldwin

Rating: [2/5]

Overcoming one’s own simplistic nature can really get in the way of finding something special to connect to. An issue where you cannot see past a specific point of view building this wall around you where you remain blind to something right in front of you. This ails the protagonist of Along Came Polly in a wholly unlikeable and horrendous romantic comedy to take in. 

After his bride cheated on him on their honeymoon, Reuben (Ben Stiller) must start over when he meets Polly (Jennifer Aniston). As they begin a flirtation with the possibility of building something special together, Reuben’s wife, Lisa (Debra Messing) realizes her mistake and wants him back. 

Now, name-calling never serves as the appropriate way to interact with someone but Reuben in this feature is an utter and complete nerd. Someone who works in actuarial science, which certainly pays well but has individuals always analyzing the risk of everything. Typically working for insurance companies, these individuals can calculate the likelihood of someone dying based on specific actions, their gender, and a whole host of variables. Something that makes insurance companies plenty of money when doling out policies, but ultimately hampers Reuben’s ability to see clearly out in the real world. 

This makes a character constantly afraid to do specific things because he knows the likelihood, to the number, that it could result in your death. Meeting Polly becomes the best thing that happened to him following the separation with his still-wife. Polly moves through the world as a free spirit with little to no care about what her future looks like or how it all plays into this larger part of life. She wants to live in a way Reuben has never considered and their pairing certainly allows the opportunity for their styles to crash into each other. Unfortunately, the pairing between these two does not carry the juice of this story and much of the fault lands not only in the writing of the story but also in Ben Stiller as Reuben. 

Stiller certainly has quite the challenge in portraying this character as anything more than a ball and chain to this story. Reuben proves to be such a drip that leaves you scratching your head and thinking how Polly could possibly find attraction in a guy like him. Don’t even get me started on the dance scenes where Reuben tries to dance. Those specific scenes should have never seen the light of day. Reuben has nothing to make us even root for the guy. This especially gets solidified when you have a scene where he tries to do an actuarial analysis to discern if his relationship with Polly or Lisa has a better chance of surviving. An extremely aggravating individual who does not deserve anyone in this story. 

The same cannot be said about Philip Seymour Hoffman portraying Sandy, Reuben’s celebrity washout friend. Hoffman solely represents the reason why this feature received two stars from me. Everything this man did in this feature will leave you in stitches. From “Let it Rain” on the basketball court to his attempt to step in for Reuben in a business meeting, he comedically rocks the house. He portrays a character so incredibly immature and refuses to recognize the truth of his circumstances but his delusion makes adds to the comedy of this performance. I can genuinely state that if we brought in Sandy as the protagonist of this story meeting Polly, it would have exponentially improved. Certainly not an exaggeration as Hoffman is just that good in making us care for this character even while possessing some horrid tendencies. 

Completely misguided in ever thinking Reuben could have anyone root for him Along Came Polly never had the chance to succeed unless they completely changed out the characters. Even with Jennifer Aniston and ​​Philip Seymour Hoffman delivering some good work, even they could not overcome the deficiencies of the protagonist and the substandard writing overall of this feature. It represents one of those romantic comedies that may succeed in operating as a comedy but dreadfully falls flat on its face when delving into the romantic part. Several good parts unfortunately do not add up to a good whole as its core remains rotten.