Long Shot

I went expecting a Seth Rogen comedy and wound up with a Charlize Theron rom com.  More Rom than Com.  Unexpected in this time of year (they are usually Christmas stories), but like unexpected things, it was good.

Charlize Theron is Charlotte Field -  "Madam Secretary" the Secretary of State to a Trump-ish President Chambers (Bob Odenkirk).   Like in all rom coms, these beautiful, successful women can't find a date.  So she meets an unexpected package, the schubby reporter Fred (Seth Rogen) at a Boys II Men show.  Turns out she was his babysitter and he fantasized about her back then.

More rom com tropes emerge:  the hidden nature of the relationship, the power imbalance, the disapproving friends, the crisis that bring them to the "will then or won't they?".

With a number of references both visual and auditory, it was kind of a modern reverse retelling of Pretty Woman (1990).  Which turned out to be a pretty good thing.

O'Shea Jackson Jr. [you know him as Ice Cube] plays the supportive male friend.

It starts slow but builds up.  Tie goes to the higher score:   **** of 5