By Aaron Schuab
Staff Writer
Peer pressure, emotional instability, and alcohol don’t mix well together. “Walk of Shame” takes an unsuccessful comedic shot at this scenario by condensing all three into a stretch of one day.
Directed by Steven Brill, “Walk of Shame” leaves viewers unsatisfied by the incoherent plot, mediocre acting, and dense jokes that plague the film. Although the film has its comical moments, it doesn’t make up for the overrated theme and the overly used puns.
Brill takes the viewers into a snippet of the life of Megan Miles (Elizabeth Banks), a reporter at a local news station. Megan is offered her dream job of being a news anchor; but coincidentally, her boyfriend breaks up with her the night before the big interview.
Stricken with grief she tries to drink her problems away. The film follows Megan’s drunken adventure, as she encounters with crackheads and prostitutes, realizing how shallow-minded and quick society is to judge people.
The comedy is laced with stereotypical jokes and puns meant to entertain the viewers, but instead creates a tense mood and an unnecessary uncomfortableness within the crowd.
The theme of the film is strong but is presented wrongly, the filmmakers attempted to use comedy to prove the judgemental attitude of society. Instead, they ended up with a inconsistent plot full of unnecessary scene changes that only added confusion onto the stockpile of already mixed emotions in the audience.
To top it all off, Banks attempts to give Megan Miles a preppy and sophisticated attitude but just results in a cumbersome and idiotic personality that just glazes the entire storyline with a somewhat prosthetic outline. The undeveloped characteristics of Megan dulls the overall tone of the film.
“Walk of Shame” was supposed to describe the struggle of a woman who, through this exodus within downtown Los Angeles, has her eyes opened to the cruelty of modern society and how those who live un-professional lives are dehumanized and scorn upon. Instead, the film completely skipped this theme and jumped straight into the repetition of poking fun at the urban taboos.
Making less than half a million in the box office, the movie was a utter failure. Brill pushes himself too far to make an over-complex plot that misses the thematic and comedic point of view and only making a bad reputation for himself.
This film is rated R and shown in most theatres.
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