The Pill(2011) Starring: Noah Bean, Rachel Boston, Anna Chlumsky, Jean Brassard, S. Lue McWilliams, Steve Routman, Julia Royter, Jack Tartaglia, Al Thompson, and Dreama Walker Directed By: J.C. Khoury Review Hello everyone your pal the cupid critic here to tell you about why you should use a condom, you won't make a shitty love story like this one. The film is about Fred being worried that he has gotten the free- spirited Mindy pregnant after an unprotected one-night stand, Fred feigns romantic interest and sticks by her side for twelve hours to make sure she takes both doses of the morning-after pill. If this film any intentional goals of being something good, it fails cause this is most uneventful and boring love story. It's not even that funny. Which makes it harder to sit through. The characters I don't remember and I just finished watching it this second. Only Fred the dumb-ass who is unsuccessful at putting on a condom and thus you have your very boring and uneventful love story. The story is not interesting if anything it feels forced upon. They do this for the sake of the plot, which contemplates to this and this. The movie convenience and plot device after another, this movie didn't need to happen, I mean it was so dang boring I need to listen to my love songs to stay awake. The direction is pretty okay, J.C Khoury does a fine job with shot but fails in getting good performances out of his actors. They all look like rejects for a soap opera. None of the elements in a good film are present, is J.C Khpoury's shots good? yes, but that doesn't make the film any less boring, tedious, stupid and uneventful. I'm giving THE PILL a half out of five.

So a clearly drunk couple swagger into their room, about to have sex when the girl (Mindy) falls asleep before they can. They guy (Fred) figures "whatever" and goes to sleep as well. Only to be woken up in the middle of the night when a now-conscious Mindy mounts (totally kinda rapes) him. As they're about to finish, Fred wants to pull out since he doesn't have a condom, she says "just do it it's fine" and even grabs him by the waist to prevent him from pulling out in case he was having any of those pesky "I don't want to ruin the rest of my life" thoughts. So next morning, she admits she's not on birth control and has no plan on taking Plan B because "she's Catholic". So while clearly willing to ignore the part of her religion against drunken premarital sex with people you've known less than a day, she chooses to be really pious about adhering to an aspect of her religion that might "persuade" a man to stay with her and raise a child in the same way a kidnapper might "persuade" a family to give him money for their child back. So Fred spends the whole day with her trying to get her to take the other part of her plan B pill, and what "endearing" revelations does he learn about this girl along the way? Is it that she has already told her parents about her new "boyfriend" even though they've known each other less than a day? Is it that she fully expects to marry this stranger and raise the child if she is pregnant? Is it that you can apparently ignore signs of borderline personality disorder with the help of an indie acoustic soundtrack? Yes! I know what you're thinking though, "but Ryan, do they goof around in a kitchen while making food while ANOTHER indie soundtrack plays in the background?" Why yes, handsome reader, they in fact, do. "Oh. Well that doesn't make this girl any less irrational or ticking uterine time bomb of Lorena Bobbit proportions and I feel like someone in the movie should have pointed that out". Right again reader! You correctly arrived at that conclusion because your parents didn't hold you under water for 12 minutes when you were a toddler. There's no likable character in the movie. Mindy is irrational, a compulsive liar, clingy, hypocritical, selfish, she deflects any piece of relevant constructive criticism by intentionally interpreting it as an insult, and she's emotional to a degree that makes me think she is the byproduct of some horrible government experiment to personify what Rush Limbaugh thinks the condensed essence of estrogen is. Fred looks like is Adam Scott and Tom Cruise had a child and inherited only their negative personality traits. He's weak willed, a liar, a cheater and so quickly taken in by Mindy's frizzy haired insanity that I feel like he's the worlds fastest example of Stockholm Syndrome. If Fred were a Jew in the Holocaust, he'd be the guy sitting in Auschwitz going "you know, maybe the Nazi's aren't that bad" after his first week. But hey, before you think that Fred is the bad guy for cheating it's revealed :SPOILER: his girlfriend had cheated on him too! So that means it's okay, right? Of course she admits this only after he says he cheated on her and that he intends to stay with Mindy (because "free spirited" and "emotional train wreck" are the same things in Fred's vocabulary) and up until that point she seemed to be an agreeable enough person who's main flaw is easily her taste in men. Come on, you know the old saying "2 wrongs and a bipolar mess make for a happy relationship in which there can be no possible negative repercussions that even Stevie Wonder could see"

when you watch this film, you'd immediately find that the main male character's way of delivering his dialog is way too much alike woody allen in all of his movies. a constant uncertain, unsure, self-doubt, self-righteous, thinking-by-mouth blabbering, the way he talks, even the gestures, the facial expressions are all transformed into woody allen alike. his impotent way to deal with women, the relationship, the long suffering under the strong-will woman, the sudden found charm when he meets gentle kind woman, the stammering when he has to lie, to convince and to persuade, to ensure the woman he falls for are exactly like what woody allen did in all of his films, the only difference is the young guy does not have a bald head and a pair of eye glasses. the whole film is watchable but not good enough to be remembered or deemed as a great movie; pills or no pills, taking promptly or following directory.

This is a side note to big budget romantic comedies that are in favor of pumping up the idiocy and the incredulity in their scripts. Instead of being a mawkish and gooey portrayal of modern relationships, The Pill is another romantic comedy exploring the dangers and the repercussions of having a one night stand. This topic was also explored in Katie Astelon's directorial effort The Freebie in 2010, a rather ho-hum and middling effort in the area of infidelity. It seems The Pill has simple kinks ironed out more efficiently.We are instantly introduced to Fred (Bean), a writer who despite having a tolerable relationship, seeks to have a one night stand with a woman he recently met while his girlfriend is on a trip. Fred hooks up with Mindy (Boston), a quirky, Zooey Deschanel-like woman, full of complexities and eccentricities. After having unprotected sex so quaintly, Fred foolishly assumes that Mindy is on the pill, when she is not. Stressed out and, after a hasty conversation involving ethics dictated by religion, Fred goes out to buy her the morning-after pill.After she takes the one, Fred neglects to remember that the morning-after pill is two pills, one for as soon as intercourse is over and the other twelve hours later. Since Mindy was so troubled by taking the one, getting her to take the other seems like a mission impossible. Knowing that she is not the most trustworthy person, Fred winds up sticking around with Mindy for the next twelve hours to assure that she will take the pill. Inevitably, they become closer, but Fred also must remember the budding quandary he is facing with his current girlfriend, Nelly (Anna Chlumsky, the My Girl actress), a pushy, vindictive soul.One of the film's funniest and brightest scenarios is when Mindy invites Fred over to her parents' house to celebrate her younger brother's birthday. Immediately, Fred has a contentious relationship with Mindy's father, who believes that he is unwise for not having a backup plan in case journalism fails him.The Pill manages to do quite a few things right with its very concise runtime. It introduces us to three characters, whose lives will eventually change because of this seemingly innocuous one night stand. It also does the best to make the Fred character, a person who initially wouldn't be a smart choice to make the leading man because of his indecisive personality and rather unlikable first impression, into a relatable man we can feel for, while also projecting life into the other two women in the film. As for the "comedy" in the term "romantic comedy," it is mainly deadpan wit that audiences may or may not collectively resonate with. Exposure to programs like The Office or Curb Your Enthusiasm, because of the quirky scenarios that inevitably erect a domino effect, could possibly help. Or just an open mind, with a craving for difference.Director J.C. Khoury does a lot of great things with his first feature film, one of which is making the film avoid romantic comedy pitfalls such as glossy sentimentality, hardcore romanticism, and cinematic clichés, and also doesn't go for the extreme indie mumblecore style that could propel into heavy-handedness. This is simply a well made romantic comedy, sharp, lively, and full of enigma that will easily resonate with the audience and provide a healthy discussion afterwards.Starring: Noah Bean, Rachel Boston, and Anna Chulmsky. Directed by: J.C. Khoury.