Wanderlust (2012)

We enjoyed this lightweight, entertaining, bit of fluff, with the dependable Paul Rudd (as George) and lots of sight gags, about a down-on-their-luck New York couple who move to an old fashioned hippie commune. Jennifer Aniston also does a good job as Rudd's character's wife Linda, as does her real-life boyfriend Justin Theroux as the commune leader Seth. After I profiled Rudd in Dinner for Schmucks he was in How Do You Know and Our Idiot Brother, and here he gets to stretch a bit towards a leading man, though his usual nerd comes out in two hilarious scenes with some foul language; Aniston is detailed in The Switch, after which she was in Horrible Bosses, and her Linda is her usual lovable ditz on which she made her reputation so long ago. Aniston and Theroux (his only recognition is a nomination for being part of the outstanding cast in one season of HBO's Six Feet Under, which I loved; he's been in a bunch of other things, including The Baxter (2005), a good indie comedy) met during this movie, and his Seth is a hoot, so stuck in the 80s that he thinks a Walkman is new technology. The commune, called Elysium, includes Alan Alda (profiled in Tower Heist), Malin Akerman (Happythankyoumoreplease), Kathryn Hahn (covered in Our Idiot Brother, then co-starred in a short-lived series Free Agents), Joe Lo Truglio (supporting roles in Free Agents, another short-lived series Sons of Tucson, The Baxter, and tons of little parts in various similar projects--more on that in a moment) as the nudist (apparently he wore a prosthetic penis in his scenes), and Lauren Ambrose (before every episode of Six Feet Under, I liked her in a lovely little indie, Swimming (2000), and afterwards as the sultry student in Starting Out in the Evening (2007)) as a glowing young pregnant woman named Almond. Jack identified Linda Lavin (star of the series Alice (1976-85) as soon as she appeared in a cameo.

Director/co-writer David Wain, who has a cameo as himself, wrote, directed, and acted in Role Models, The Ten (2007), and a series called The State, plus a small part in The Baxter. I didn't see the latter two, but much of the cast here was in both of them. Co-writer Ken Marino (all four preceding credits) is funny as the obnoxious brother Rick, and he and Wain did a good job with the script, although it seems that there's a lot of good ad-libbing. I must also mention Michaela Watkins (you would know her face from dozens of bit parts, including as Matthew's crazy girlfriend on The New Adventures of Old Christine on CBS and one of the bitchy co-workers on Enlightened on HBO) as Rick's beleaguered wife Marissa.

Craig Wedren, part of a band called Shudder to Think, wrote the music, is on screen as a band member in this and I Love You, Man (which also starred Rudd), composed for the four titles in the last paragraph, as well as some other movies that are so packed with songs that no one will remember the scores, e.g. Velvet Goldmine (1998) and The School of Rock (2004), and some memorable scores to memorable projects: High Art (1998), Laurel Canyon (2002) (I loved both of those), and the sadly now-cancelled serieses United States of Tara from Showtime and Hung from HBO. You can read the list of songs and link to clips from this page, and learn more about Wedren from his own website.

Jack and I saw this in early March and it's the first movie I've written about that was released this year--one of the disadvantages of living in a fly-over state. Don't be like other people in the fly-over states and leave before  the end, because there's a bonus!