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Acting
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Directing
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Story
Starring: Iliza Shlesinger, Ryan Hansen, Margaret Cho
Director: Kimmy Gatewood
Running Time: 92 mins
Good On Paper is an American film about a woman struggling in love who needs the perfect man. However, she begins to realise that he’s perhaps a little too perfect.
Good On Paper is an American film about a woman struggling in love who needs the perfect man. However, she begins to realise that he’s perhaps a little too perfect.
I like a romantic comedy with a twist, although Good On Paper strikes me as a film which takes its twist a little too far, to the point that it loses connection with what started out as a really charming movie.
Starting on the plus side, I really enjoyed Iliza Shlesinger’s lead performance here. While I can’t exactly speak for her screenplay, her character is smart, confident, funny and immensely likable right from the off.
With a wonderfully charismatic performance, Shlesinger immediately endears you to her character, to such an event even that you don’t really believe she needs a lucky love life to be happy.
However, it’s a romantic comedy, so a bit of love is always on the menu, and for the most part, the relationship between Shlesinger and her oh-so-perfect boyfriend in Ryan Hansen starts off in a really fun way, with a good blend of cheesy romance and a welcome dollop of good comedy too.
Like Shlesinger, Hansen knocks it out of the park as a good-looking goody two-shoes kind of guy, and the charisma of his performance works just as well when we begin to learn the truth behind his seemingly irresistible appeal.
The problem, however, comes with Shlesinger’s deterioration from a genuinely smart and likable woman who’s making all the jokes in the movie happen to somebody almost unbelievably deranged, now the butt of almost every joke.
As Hansen falls out of the picture, we begin to see Shlesinger as her world understandably falls apart. However, her almost maniacal reaction to the whole situation isn’t really in keeping with the excellent character we’ve got to know over the opening act, and it’s a lot tougher to laugh with her as her character becomes more and more unhinged.
With the exception of what seems like some welcome comeuppance for Hansen at the very end of the film, the second half of Good On Paper never quite lives up to the excellent opening act, disappointingly lifting its feet way off the ground in a rather messy run to the finish. So, that’s why I’m giving Good On Paper a 7.3 overall.
