Long Shot Parent Guide

Charlotte Field (portrayed with Grace Kelly’s cool elegance by Charlize Theron) is one of the most powerful women in the world. A popular and capable Secretary of State, she is planning a run for the presidency, with the endorsement of the sitting President (Bob Odenkirk). With polling numbers in the 90s, nothing can stop her. And then she runs into Fred at a party.

Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen) is a crusading journalist, now unemployed since his newspaper has been purchased by a vast right-wing media conglomerate (a thinly disguised Fox News). Having been brought to the party to cheer him up after the loss of his job, Fred sees Charlotte and flashes back to a sexually awkward memory of being aroused when he was 13 years old and she was babysitting him. But those memories aren’t uncomfortable for Charlotte and when the two reconnect, she offers him a job as a speechwriter because he “gets her”.

And “get her” he certainly does, although it takes a while before Fred manages to bed his tween crush. And here the movie hits two snags: first, it is almost impossible for any viewer to believe that Charlotte - intelligent, successful, and stunningly beautiful - is going to fall for Fred, who ticks all the boxes for a stereotypical man-child millennial. And second, the sexual content in this film is not only frequent, it is also off-putting. There are intimate scenes where Charlotte requests sexual activities that can’t be described on a family website. And there is a particularly unpleasant episode where Fred masturbates and ejaculates onto his beard. Although it is played for laughs, there was no laughter in the screening I attended. Sexual language also dominates the dialogue: I counted 115 uses of the sexual expletive (and another 50 scatological curses and a smattering of other profanities). The Restricted rating for this movie is well deserved because there are other issues on top of the sexual content: Long Shot further disappoints by using alcohol and drugs for comedic purposes. The worst of these involves Charlotte asking Fred to help her get a “Molly” (MDMA or ecstasy). The two go out clubbing and get high. But reality intrudes when Charlotte, still wasted, is called in to negotiate the release of an American airman who has been taken hostage. This is treated as a comic element instead of as a failure to fulfill the office she has the honor to hold.

Along with the appalling content issues in this film, there are a few small bright spots. Long Shot is at its funniest and most incisive when it deals with the gender-based challenges women face in politics - and it would be a better movie if more of the comedy were based here than on the male sexual fantasy of the schmuck getting the hot girl. The last five minutes of the film are also laugh out loud funny and are easily the best part of the production – quite possibly because this is where the movie flips from being a male fantasy into a female fantasy. And the story is strongest when it examines the couple’s relationship in the context of maintaining their individual integrity while accepting the constraints of her life in the public eye. But, sadly, the writers stuck to the tried and true formula of cheap sexual humor instead of betting on the long shot – a romantic comedy that touches the mind and heart; not just the hormones.