Fish and Cherries Productions

Synopsis: Nancy (Lake Bell) is a single woman in Britain with a cynical world view. Her plans and entire world gets upended when she finds Jack (Simon Pegg), who mistakes her for his blind date that he’s supposed to meet. Since she has been hurting for companionship for a bit, she decides to go along with it and finds herself having an amazing time. But the deception can’t last forever and through hijinks and happenstance, the two have a night on the town that they will never forget.

Review: Man Up is a surprisingly refreshing take on the concept of the romantic comedy spurred by miscommunication. I’ll admit that in the beginning, I was worried and cringing quite a bit at some of the antics. But once the truth came out, rather than the two becoming dejected and moping off in their own separate directions, the movie becomes positively electric and the laughs become loud and frequent. The best way to handle a cliche in a movie is to find out how to have fun with it or make it seem fresh and new and this movie completely understands that.

The characters are great too, working well off of each other and getting in their own snappy witicisms when it’s their time. Simon Pegg is great as always, but special mention goes to Lake Bell who had me completely fooled into thinking her British accent was authentic (the actress, in fact, is a New York born American). The only character that rubbed me the wrong way was this guy that had a crush on Nancy since high school. I found a lot of his shtick way to creepy and not funny enough to have any sort of counterbalance. But with that said, it’s still a great film and the whole thing ends with a wonderful conclusion that’s both heartwarming and hilarious. I get the feeling that this movie is slipping under the cracks of collective consciousness, so find yourself a copy and give it a watch.

Fun Tidbit: Does that room service guy with Nancy in the beginning look familiar? He should. That’s John Bradley-West, who plays Samwell Tarly in Game of Thrones.