I really enjoy Iliza Shlesinger and usually she makes me laugh out loud. Which is why it was disappointing how few good laughs are in this vehicle for her, written by her, in which she is in almost every scene. Good on Paper is a riff on rom-coms that gets underneath a lot of the assumptions of the genre but likely would have worked better if it was funnier. I mean Margaret Cho is in this and she's not that funny either. I know, that's hard to believe.
The film was a weird progression, starting out about how a platonic friendship morphs into a romantic relationship even going so far as to ensure Hansen's character is "unattractive" and never establishes why she suddenly becomes so passionate about him. Then it moves into questioning whether he is who he says he is. Then it becomes a revenge comedy. But none of the parts fits well with the others.
The film goes into over the top territory so that it feels more like a bit than a movie with a full plot. By the third act Cho and Schlesinger are just camping it up so much it is hard to take any of it at face value. And there is this weird Seinfeld gimmick where we constantly cut to her on stage doing her comedy that, like the rest of the movie, isn't often very funny.
But it's not a total disaster. The film has a nice subplot that challenges the rivalries and competition between women. The strength of the film is the way it attempts to pass along a message of being true to yourself instead of needing a relationship. But the film is just generally clunky and not as entertaining as one would hope.
Good on Paper
Starring: Iliza Shlesinger, Ryan Hansen, Margaret Cho, Rebecca Rittenhouse
Director: Kimmy Gatewood
Writer: Iliza Shlesinger
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