I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With

[StevePulaski]

Jeff Garlin and Sarah Silverman.

Rating: ★★★

I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With reminds me a little bit of World's Greatest Dad. It's marketed as a comedy, when really it's a drama. The front cover of the film is quoted in being "Hilarious" when it's anything but. It's a melodrama that is only chuckle inducing rather than constant hilarity as one may assume. Personally, I find nothing funny about a down-on-your-luck, heavy set man going through almost a midlife crisis. I don't find the humor in that.

Jeff Garlin stars as James, an obese man who's luck has seemed to be at a halt. He works at Second City, an improvising show in Chicago, and he loses his job, lives with his mother, his girlfriend leaves him, and he sneaks out of his Overeaters Anonymous seminar to go to an ice cream parlor. He meets a plucky and younger woman named Beth (Silverman). Beth gives him an ice cream snack she made as practice and even questions James if he's ever done anything kinky.

James and Beth hang out the next day and it's beginning to be noticeable that both are getting attracted to one another. James continues to go on with his every day life which involves a goofy show or two, and hanging out with his friends. My favorite, the clerk played by Dan Castellaneta.

The movie tends to hit starts and stops, and sometimes seems as if it is not progressing at all. It's short and sweet, but Garlin works through the film softly and calmly. He doesn't rely on regular humor most romantic comedies do and it certainly isn't formulaic. Its got the humor of Larry David's show Curb Your Enthusiasm, which Garlin also stars in.

Shot in eighteen days, but spread over the course of almost two years, I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With is a strange, strange little film with some off the wall humor and some very well crafted characters. I enjoyed Garlin's sweet and simple attitude, Silverman's presence, and its far from cliche ending. This isn't the most eventful rom-com, but it's one that shows love in a different light. With IFC Films on the cover, it is surely far from the Hollywood light.

Starring: Jeff Garlin, Sarah Silverman, Bonnie Hunt, Dan Castellaneta. Directed by: Jeff Garlin.