Michael Cera and His Evil Twin

Michael Cera stars in this double duty comedy about none other than an insecure 16-year-old teen-dweeb of guy who just can’t seem to win the girls. (Sound familiar?) Well, it should as this is the typical role that Cera has been cast in since he was 15. Unfortunately, this film has had a delayed opening and Cera is now 21. While Cera shined in this kind of role way back when, he’s beyond it now. Despite the studio desperately trying to find an opening slot that would work, the film doesn’t fly. We can’t blame Cera, as he has nerdy, insecure and self conscious down to a science. The predicament lies in the timing of the film. It’s simply too late as we’ve moved on as an audience and so has Cera.

The film is based on the book by C.D. Payne titled, Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp. In the novel, the journal is from the viewpoint of a 14-year-old who is smitten by girls, but who has no experience with the latter. As in the book, Nick, played by Cera, meets a girl who changes his life – Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday). Nick will do absolutely anything to win her affections, even if means inventing an alter ego designed to become the boyfriend of her fantasies. 

The screenplay is written by Gustin Nash who also penned (Charlie Barrett 2007). The script is somewhat forced as the adolescent teens talk about taboo topics like they’re discussing the sports pages.  The dysfunctional family is played up to an extreme as Nick’s mother is a nightmare –  all her ‘boyfriends’ end up living at the house after a few dates. Ray Liotta plays a real creeper as one of the so-called boyfriends.  

Cera plays both parts as he’s Nick, the insecure guy, and Nick, the French mustache bad dud guy who knows how to prevail in romance. The alter ego character is hysterically funny and Cera carries the role to the limit. Francois Dillinger wears tight black Italian pants and speaks in an accent. He’s self assured and goes after what he wants. The contrast in characters is incredible and interesting to watch although you can imagine the wide span of feelings absorbed by Nick.

Francois is determined to be appalling and in the process, burns down half of the town of Oakland. Yes, he’s a bad dude that has a one track mind and will stop at nothing to achieve his goal, that being the heart of Sheeni. Everything he does is centered on her. Without giving away too much of the remainder of the story, I’m certain you can imagine where this one is headed. It’s a recipe for disaster and all I can say is you were warned.

The director at the helm is Miguel Arteta whose film (The Good Girl 2002) with Jennifer Aniston is a so-so romantic comedy that went under the radar. The comedy (Chuck & Buck 2000) won acclaim in the independent film festival arenas. He’s mainly been involved with numerous TV projects such as ‘Ugly Betty’, ‘The Office’ and ‘Six Feet Under’ to name a few.

If you’re a Michael Cera fan then by all means, run to the theater as he’s on-camera throughout all of the film and I highly doubt you’ll ever see him with this much screen time in the near future.

Sarah Adamson © January 2010