Long Shot (2019 film)


Long Shot is a 2019 American romantic comedy film directed by Jonathan Levine and written by Dan Sterling and Liz Hannah. The plot follows a journalist who reunites with his former babysitter, now the United States Secretary of State. O'Shea Jackson Jr., Andy Serkis, June Diane Raphael, Bob Odenkirk, and Alexander Skarsgård also star.
The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 9, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on May 3, 2019, by Lionsgate. It received generally positive reviews from critics and praise for the chemistry between Rogen and Theron.

Plot

Charlotte Field learns from President Chambers, a former television actor, that he does not plan on running for a second term as he is trying to break into the movie industry. Seeing an opportunity, she convinces him to endorse her as a potential presidential candidate.
Meanwhile, New York City journalist Fred Flarsky learns that the newspaper he works for has been bought by Parker Wembley, a wealthy media mogul whose ethics directly oppose Fred's. Furious, he promptly quits but cannot find another job. Depressed, he turns to his more successful best friend Lance, who takes him to a charity fundraising event where Boyz II Men happened to be playing. Coincidentally, Charlotte is also in attendance. She and Fred recognize each other, as she was his babysitter and secret crush when they were younger. While they catch up, Wembley interrupts them to plan a meeting with Charlotte, leading Fred to condemn Wembley's actions and beliefs very loudly before leaving, falling down a set of stairs and injuring himself in the process.
Upon reading some of Fred's columns, Charlotte decides to hire him to write her speeches over the protests of her Chief of Staff, Maggie. Despite voicing skepticism of her ethics, Fred takes the job. At a world leaders summit, Charlotte is forced to revise a speech involving a planned environmental revision to appease some of her constituents. When Fred objects and calls her out on abandoning her morals, she changes her mind and the speech is a success.
As the two continue to spend time together under the pretext of Fred learning more about Charlotte for his writing, they start to get close. Finally, after surviving a revolution in Manila, they begin a relationship together. Upon finding out, Maggie tries to warn both that the public will never accept them as a couple. When Chambers orders Charlotte to remove plans to preserve the trees, as some friends of his asked, she lets off steam with Fred by getting high on ecstasy. A hostage crisis occurs soon after and, despite still being high, Charlotte manages to talk the captors down and free the hostage.
Even though the incident increases Charlotte's approval rating, Chambers is livid when she chooses to ignore his orders and call him out. He confronts her in his office alongside Wembley, who has a vested interest in removing the trees as part of his plan. The two blackmail her with a hacked video from Fred's webcam. The hacked video depicts Fred discussing his and Charlotte's relationship and Fred further masturbating to a video of one of her speeches, the hacked video culminating in Fred ejaculating on his own face. Charlotte shows Fred the hacked video and informs him that she has agreed to the ultimatum, and that she wants to introduce him and their relationship publicly once his image is cleaned up. Disappointed and unwilling to change, he refuses and they break up.
Back in New York, Fred talks with Lance, who tells him that he has been too stubborn with his principles and refusal to consider other people's needs and opinions. During her announcement to run for president in 2020, Charlotte changes her mind and opts for her original plan, also revealing the blackmail from Wembley and Chambers and describing the content of the video before its release. Fred searches for Charlotte and finds her waiting at his apartment. They admit that they love each other, and meet the press outside where Charlotte introduces Fred as her boyfriend. In 2021, the couple marry and Charlotte is sworn in as the first female president with Fred as "First Mister", him having taken her last name.

Cast

Production

In February 2017, the project, then titled Flarsky, was announced, with Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron attached to star and Jonathan Levine directing. Rogen was reportedly paid $15 million. That summer, Liz Hannah, whose first Hollywood job was at Theron's production company Denver and Delilah Productions, was hired to rewrite Dan Sterling's original script. In October 2017, O'Shea Jackson Jr. was cast. In November 2017, June Diane Raphael, Ravi Patel, Andy Serkis, Alexander Skarsgård, and Randall Park joined the cast as filming commenced in Montreal.
Scenes were filmed in Plaza de la Trinidad in Cartagena, Colombia in the end of January 2018. In January 2019, it was announced the film had been retitled Long Shot.
Marco Beltrami & Miles Hankins composed the film's score, having previously worked with the director in The Night Before. Lionsgate Records has released the soundtrack.

Release

The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 9, 2019. Originally slated to be released on February 8, 2019, following highly positive test screenings it was pushed back to June 7, 2019 in order to be positioned as a summer tentpole. It was then moved up to its eventual date of May 3, 2019.

While promoting the movie in France on the hit TV show Touche pas à mon poste!, Charlize Theron was shocked when the host Cyril Hanouna gave a friendly kiss to the female translator, not knowing that Hanouna kisses all his staff and collaborators, both men and women, on camera on a daily basis and that kissing is not fround upon in France as it is in the USA. The event briefly turned viral in France where Hanouna is a household name. The vast majority of viewers defended Hanouna, as well as the cast of the show who felt Theron had totally misinterpreted his intentions. A few days later, the translator also said that she did not feel the kiss was inappropriate. For falsely accusing him of assault and attracting negative press to his show, Hanouna later swore never to invite Theron again.

Reception

Box office

Long Shot grossed $30.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $22.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $52.9 million.
In the United States and Canada, Long Shot was released alongside The Intruder and UglyDolls, and was projected to gross $9–16 million from 3,230 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $3.6 million on its first day, including $660,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $9.7 million, finishing third. The film held well in its second weekend, grossing $6.1 million and finishing in fifth. The Ringer reported that the film underperformed at the box office, which it partially attributed to its premiere one week after the blockbuster success of .

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 81% based on 286 reviews and an average rating of 7.08/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A sharp and deceptively layered comedy that's further fueled by the odd couple chemistry of its leads, this Long Shot largely hits its marks." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars and a 57% "definite recommend."
John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter called it "Very funny whatever you think of its more old-fashioned notions, the picture will charm many viewers who can set implausibility aside for a while."
Variety's Peter Debruge described the film as: "More creepy than romantic, more chauvinist than empowered — and in all fairness, funnier and more entertaining than any comedy in months — Long Shot serves up the far-fetched wish-fulfillment fantasy of how, for one lucky underdog, pursuing your first love could wind up making you first man."