Man Up

Man Up is the new British comedy from Ben Palmer, director of the Channel 4 sitcom The Inbetweeners, and the subsequent film spin-offs. It stars the familiar face of Simon Pegg, and the not-quite-as familiar face of Lake Bell, as a lovelorn pair who inadvertently end up on a blind date together. The title seemingly refers to Bell’s character Nancy in relation to her attempts to ‘put herself out there’ and engage more with life, and yet it suggests a level of irony not really apparent in the film itself.

As you would expect from Palmer, and a strong cast including Rory Kinnear and Olivia Williams, the whole thing feels very assured and starts off strongly, but it soon reverts to some of the more facile tropes of British romantic-comedies. There’s a bowling montage accompanied to upbeat music, a dancefloor montage accompanied to upbeat music and it’s not really giving it away to say that there’s a grand, dramatic reconciliation in the final act.

Lake Bell is a joy to watch as always as the hapless Nancy, but the character lets her down. The 34 year-old Nancy is presented as someone afforded the sympathy and concern you might expect to be granted to a cancer patient, simply by virtue of being a single woman in her mid-thirties. She is eventually overcome with joy at the appearance of an unremarkable, if emotionally unstable, 40 year old man who has already blown her off once in favour a 24 year old who he has never met before. Pegg is an able and engaging screen presence, although it does feel a little like he’s just going through the motions; while Rory Kinnear gives a performance that can best be described as brave, as Sean, an old school friend of Nancy who still has an unhealthy preoccupation with her.

Unfortunately the London presented in the film is never remotely convincing, and the crowd scenes are all conspicuously lacking in non-white faces. It is perhaps a version of London conceived with a national or even international audience in mind. Clearly the film is pursuing a broad audience and I wouldn’t be described if it does very well. The cast and the director are capable enough to have got a good number of laughs out of an ordinary script and the film has a nice balance. If you’re generally a fan of mainstream British comedies, the chances are you will love it, if not I would advise you to stay away.