Swinging with the Finkels

Starring: Martin Freeman, Mandy Moore, Jonathan Silverman, Melissa George and Jerry Stiller

Rated: R

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When a couple’s marriage grows stale they decide that swinging might be the way to get things back on track.

Ellie (Mandy Moore) and Alvin (Martin Freeman) are a couple, who after nine years have lost the romantic spark in their marriage. Ellie is a designer working on her fashion show and getting advice from her Gay assistant while Alvin is an Architect looking for advice of his own from his best friend Peter (Jonathan Silverman).

With a title like Swinging with the Finkels one would think that Swinging would play a large portion of the film when in reality its ten minutes max. The scenes are played unsuccessfully for laughs with a montage of over the top bondage, elderly and lesbian couples who are obviously not a fit.

Mandy Moore does her best to break out of her sweet image even going so far as to participate in an unfunny produce masturbation scene with the requisite awful sound effect. She is completely out of place as a fashion designer who lacks personal style. She for some reason is paired up with Alvin who I could only describe as an older gentleman who lacks charisma and looks like a hobbit without makeup (ironic since part way through the film It dawned on me that he plays Bilbo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings franchise), the only thing these two have in common is a penchant for being boring and wearing sweaters. There is zero chemistry between the two which is crucial for a Romantic Comedy. Another huge issue is the soundtrack, I am not sure where the score came from but it needs to go back, it’s as ill fitting as one of Alvin’s Sweaters.

Swinging with Finkels is a movie that lacks identity, it doesn’t know if it wants to be a raunch-com a sitcom or a sappy romance it’s a jumbled bag of all and fails to pull off any.

Grade- 62