What's Your Number? Movie Review by Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips

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Home ! Collections ! Entertainment Ads By Google 'What's Your Number?' counts on a Recommend dated premise — 2 stars 0 0 StumbleUpon September 29, 2011 | Michael Phillips | Movie critic Submit It's a close call, given the lousiness and the scolding tone of much of her material, but Anna Faris survives "What's Your Number?" with eccentric comic charm intact. Dumb film; smart comedienne. Audiences take to Faris for many reasons. She's fearless. She has no vanity. She doesn't look like every other "pretty but funny" prototype in Hollywood. She can take a pratfall. She can seem simultaneously dim and bright, a beat behind the action while mysteriously a step ahead of it, which is how most of Anna Farris stars in "What's Your Number?" us feel at any given moment, but she knows how to get laughs with that combination.

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REVIEW: 'My Afternoons with Margueritte' As executive producer Faris helped develop the Boston-set romantic comedy from the book "20 Times a Lady," which operates from a defeatist premise I reject utterly, but we'll get to that in a sec. Related Articles It's implied that the recently laid-off marketing department flunky Ally, the Faris character, has been dumped 19 straight times in her life. Chronically between unsatisfying relationships, she Younger crowd living `the lifestyle' approaches the imminent marriage of her younger sister (Ari Graynor) with a touch of envy. January 14, 2004 A chance encounter with a Marie Claire magazine article sends Ally into a low-grade panic. If she's Dumb da dumb dumb had twice the national average (10.5) of sexual partners, does that mean she's unmarryable? August 26, 2002 Thus begins Ally's film-long rummage through her roster of exes. With the help of the frequently naked sensitive hunky Lothario across the hall (Chris Evans), she begins a search for Mr. Right, Film takes on tricky topic of aging libidos presuming he must've come and gone without her realizing it (Andy Samberg, Anthony Mackie and July 19, 2006 Chris Pratt have cameos in that lineup). She'll do anything to avoid that dreaded No. 20. Alberto-culver Buys Into Gelatin's Strength There is real potential in the notion of a malleable, insecure protagonist who has tried to be February 4, 1997 someone different to suit each new unsuitable relationship. But in strange ways, the "What's Your Number?" screenplay, plenty coarse without being plentifully witty, gives Faris all the room she needs while shackling Ally, her character, to anachronistic Doris Day-era sexual attitudes. Find More Stories About I'm sorry, and I know I'm a guy, but who cares how many people so-and-so has slept with? To have Entertainment the entire movie hung up on this issue, only to dismiss it as stupid in the end, feels all wrong. The humiliation games played on Anna are more depressing than spirited, and old standbys such as the Premise awkward, drunken toast in front of the family (Blythe Danner plays Ally's hypercritical mother) fall Anna Faris flat. And would Ally, even if she comes from money, really fly around the country visiting smarmy Review ex-boyfriends just to see if they've improved? Under the workmanlike direction of Mark Mylod, Faris keeps this fits-and-starts affair from sputtering completely. I'll close with one example that won't sound amusing but is. At one point Ally's hair extensions catch fire at an outdoor restaurant and she tosses them into a nearby fountain, just in time for her date to not know what's going on. Then, owing to residual smoke in the air, she lets out a little cough. A quick one. But her timing is brilliant. And after I laughed — I remember I did, because it'd been a while — I did what I generally disdain at movie screenings. Out loud I said: "Finally!" [email protected] 'What's Your Number?' -- 2 stars MPAA rating: R (for sexual content and language) Cast: Anna Faris (Ally); Chris Evans (Colin); Ari Graynor (Daisy); Blythe Danner (Ava); Credits: Directed by Mark Mylod; written by Gabrielle Allan and Jennifer Crittenden, based on the book "20 Times a Lady" by Karyn Bosnak; produced by Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson. A 20th Century Fox release. Running time: 1:46.

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