Cinema Reviews

Man Up Review

• 25th May 2015

Have you ever had a case of mistaken identity? Tess Morris (The Love Punch, My Family) has and it inspired her to put pen to paper and write Man Up. One day she was stood under the clock at Waterloo train station and a man approached her, asked her if she was Claire and the cogs in her head started whirring. She said no but the possibilities if she had said yes were endless.

Nancy (Lake Bell – What Happens In Vegas, Million Dollar Arm) is 34 years old, single and hung-over again. She is becoming exhausted by the never ending, awful set ups by her friends and is trekking across London to celebrate another decade of her parent’s happy marriage. Nursing her sore head and trying to cobble together a toast for the anniversary party she meets the ever perky, self-help book loving Jessica (Ophelia Lovibond – Guardians Of The Galaxy, A Single Shot) who tries to encourage her to be less cynical and a little more open to opportunities but gets beaten down at every turn.

Mistaking Nancy for his 24 year old blind date, 40 year old divorcee, Jack (Simon Pegg – The World’s End, Star Trek Into Darkness) introduces himself. Nancy throws caution to the wind and decides to go with it. What follows is the most chaotic yet sometimes hilarious evening of her life that neither of them are likely to forget in a hurry. There is lots of drinking, highly competitive sportsmanship, an old class mate with a penchant for stalking and a long standing crush, lost divorce papers, excellent dancing and Jack discovering that Nancy isn’t actually his blind date.

Man Up is one of the best romantic comedies that has been released for a while. Although it may be a little predictable in places it is both fun and funny by the bucket load. Plus, you can’t help but feel good after such a nice film about taking chances, being yourself, making decisions and rolling with the punches.

Laura Johnson

Man Up is released in cinemas on Friday 29^th May.