by Robert Scocchi
| Updated
Imagine a world in which greeting card companies have a disproportionate amount of power over their employees and use their resources to manipulate audiences, one love letter at a time. This is the world occupied by Bob Odenkirk's Ray Wentworth in 2017 Girlfriend's Daya romantic crime comedy that is as absurd as it is ambitious. Playing it straight as a legitimate crime drama laden with deadpan dialogue, Girlfriend's Day Sweet like a box of chocolates on Valentine's Day, and sticky like a jilted ex who shreds your tires when he realizes he left his Elliot Smith record at your house and finds out you've blocked his number when they try to retrieve it for him.
While I wanted to like this movie because I've been a fan of Odenkirk's work ever since Mr. Shaw with Bob and DavidI can't say that Very bad and You'd better call Saul The star's finest hour. The storyboard is crazy, but the concept itself could have been better served with a 30-minute runtime rather than being stretched out into a 70-minute long movie.
Writer's dilemma
Girlfriend's Day It begins with Ray Wentworth (Bob Odenkirk), a recently divorced alcoholic greeting card writer who works for AAAAA Greetings. Known for writing beautiful things with depth and depth, Ray is a household name, and his contributions to the greeting card industry are the stuff of legend. However, Cormac McCarthy once said, “If there's an occupational hazard in writing, it's drinking,” and Ray tends to get lost in the sauce more often than is evident, leading to a severe bout of writer's block and a healthy amount of blackouts. Electrolysis, which leads to its termination from AAAAA. Regards.
Ray meets a former colleague, now homeless, named Taft (Larry Fessenden), who has quit work to pursue his career as a novelist. By getting a glimpse into his future through Taft, Ray knows he doesn't have much time to get his life back on track.
Elaborate preparation
During the next three months Girlfriend's Day timeline, Ray enters a state of alcoholic depression. That is until his former boss Stuyvesant (Alex Karpovsky) approaches Ray. Stuyvesant explains that the state of California is holding a card-writing contest for a new company holiday called Girlfriends Day.
The only golden rule of competition is this present Greeting card employees aren't allowed to participate, which means Ray is the perfect man to get the job done.
When Ray sneaks into his old office at AAAAA to retrieve some supplies, he finds Taft mortally wounded and bleeding from a stab wound. Ray wakes up the next day on his couch after being beaten by an unseen assailant, and vaguely remembers the events of the previous night.
After encountering a homicide detective named Miller (Kevin O'Grady), Ray meets a charming woman named Jill (Amber Tamblyn) and discovers she owns a greeting card store. A spark ignites between the two soon-to-be lovers, and things start looking up for Ray on the romantic front.
Ray, newly infatuated with an inspiring figure, has a whole new set of problems to deal with after learning that Miller works for both AAAAA Greetings and Paper Hearts – two competing greeting card companies owned by the Gundy Brothers, Robert (Stacey Keach). and Dillon (never appeared on screen before). After warning Miller that he will be framed for Taft's murder if he does not bend to the will of the Gundy brothers, Ray finds himself in the middle of a grand conspiracy to make sure the girlfriends' day goes off without a hitch.
It should have been a comedy skit
Girlfriend's Day It has a serious problem that undermines the storytelling: it wasn't meant to be a movie. Don't get me wrong, I've extolled the virtues of a tight runtime combined with fast pacing in the past, but only if the format makes sense for the story being told. In my mind, Girlfriend's Day It would have been a solid extended sitcom to live in Mr. Shaw universe, not unlike the gritty and surreal 1994 sitcom “Love and Hot Dogs” that he produced Kids in the hall.
Girlfriend's Day However, it is not without its charm. Narrated by David Lynch, featuring Stephen Michael Quezada (Very bad) as Ray's crooked landlord, Munoz, is a suitably acted comedy with excellent chemistry between the main cast, but leaves me wanting less, which would be more than enough in this case to get its point across.
You can stream Girlfriends day on Netflix if drama, shenanigans, and deadpan delivery sound like something you're looking for in your life.
