Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron bring out the best in one another in this surprisingly textured (and very funny) rom-com about a journalist who falls for a Presidential hopeful
"In what world would stunning Charlize Theron and schlubby Seth Rogen hook up? The loaded-with-laughs Long Shot offers a comically absurd and sweetly touching answer to that rude question. Theron plays Charlotte Field, the Secretary of State who has her eye on the White House. The 'dumb ass' President of the United States is played by a delicious Bob Odenkirk. Field needs the idiot president’s endorsement. But her image consultant (a terrific Lisa Kudrow) thinks Field is not enough fun to be voter-relatable. Enter Fred Flarsky (Rogen), a speechwriter with the common touch Field needs to punch up her dull speeches.
"Director Jonathan Levine (50/50) contrives to make this odd-coupling that horrifies the Field PR team not just ingratiating but inevitable. Of course, everyone on Field’s team wants to bring down Flarsky. Her handlers see Flarsky as the match that will send Field’s presidential chances up in smoke. They’d much prefer to see Field connect with her equal in hotness and electability. That would be Trudeau-type Canadian Prime Minister James Stewart (Alexander Skarsgård having a ball with an outrageous French accent and a ridiculous laugh).
"The result is a gleefully retro and raunchy funfest. That the rom and the com both land is a tribute to Theron and Rogen. Sure, he’s played this kind of slob before, but here he hones it to perfection. And the Oscar-winning Theron shows a flair for comedy that is revelatory. Theron and Rogen are a sparking pair of live wires who turn an impossible relationship — she’s the class to his crass, the hot to his not — into a winning proposition." - Rolling Stone