Standing Still

Set over the weekend that an octet of friends meet to celebrate the impending nuptials of Michael (Adam Garcia) and Elise (Amy Adams), Standing Still is a lightweight comedy that manages to combine the raucousness of Bachelor Party with the 20-something voyage of discovery typified by such 80's yardsticks as St Elmo's Fire and latterly Bodies, Rest & Motion.

The circumstances that each character finds themselves in seems to smack of the bog-standard script writing stereotypes (the gay one, the one with the family secret, the high-powered actor just wanting friendship, the virgin) and the banally trite revelations that these pigeonholed ciphers reveal (the wedding morning story rivals that of Phoebe Cates’ Gremlins story about Christmas Eve) never allows the film to escape the montage scored sitcom feeling that pervades the running time.

The impressively assembled ensemble is often stymied by such appallingly scripted dialogue: "I've slept with five guys in my entire life, two of which died ironically hitting each other in the same car accident and the other three all show up in the same weekend". Enchanted star Amy Adams has already grown out of this supporting schtick, but it seems that Mena Suvari will never be able to escape such parts. Colin Hanks doesn't yet have the gravity to pull off a mean Swimming With Sharks-type ruthless agent and James Van Der Beek will just always be Dawson, no matter how many times he looks to play the meanie.

Minor moments are typically the film’s undoing: the fact that the stag do and the hen night occur the night before the wedding and everyone copiously imbibes both drink and drugs with no ramifications, coupled with how the privileged lifestyle of the protagonists can be reasoned away in a sentence, shows just how out of touch with reality the filmmakers are.

Everything is typically resolved by the end of the film and whilst this will serve as therapy for some, even a great movie for others, Standing Still has never felt so much like going backwards.

Extras: Interview with Amy Adams and Adam Garcia, Theatrical Trailer.

Released on 12th May 2008 by Momentum.

Written by Simon Cole.