Along Came Polly Information

Along Came Polly is a 2004 American romantic comedy film written and directed by John Hamburg, starring Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston in the lead roles. The story follow Reuben Feffer (Ben Stiller), a tightly-wound newly-wed who finds his life falling into chaos when he discovers his wife cheating on him with a scuba diver on their honeymoon and then quickly finds himself falling in love with his old classmate, Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston). The movie made a gross of $88,097,164 in the US.

Plot

Reuben Feffer (Ben Stiller), a risk analyst for life insurance, is celebrating his honeymoon with newlywed wife, Lisa Kramer (Debra Messing), on the island of St. Barts, but catches her having sex with Claude (Hank Azaria), a French scuba instructor. Returning home to New York alone, he attempts to piece his life back together. Reuben goes to an art gallery with his friend, Sandy Lyle (Philip Seymour Hoffman), where he runs into former junior high school classmate Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston).

Reuben and Polly begin dating, with her introducing him to activities he once wrote off as "too risky". This included eating at a Moroccan restaurant which ends badly due to Reuben's IBS (Irritable bowel syndrome). Luckily, Polly gives him a second chance where they end up salsa dancing and later enthusiastically having sex together, with Reuben shouting "50" as he orgasms. The contrast between their two personalities is a source of comedy throughout the film until Lisa returns and tells him she wants to reconcile their relationship. Meanwhile, Sandy, a self-centered, former teen idol, is trying to make a comeback by having a documentary filmed about his starring role as Judas in an amateur production of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Reuben is torn between the free-spirited Polly and the safe and familiar Lisa. To solve this issue, he enters information about Polly and Lisa into a computer insurance program which measures risk. The computer tells him that, despite his numerous blunders with her, Polly is the least risky choice for Reuben. Polly joins Reuben on a sailing trip where he is to inspect Leland Van Lew (Bryan Brown), a high-risk client, but she is offended when she sees his risk analysis of her. She rejects his proposal to move in together, telling him that he would be better off going back to Lisa.

Back home, Reuben tries talking to Polly, but to no avail. He eventually invites Lisa to Sandy's opening show, where he learns that Polly is leaving New York for Cincinnati in a few hours. After a speech given by his father, Irving (Bob Dishy), to Sandy about not living in the past, Reuben realizes he wants to be with Polly and not Lisa, and he rushes to her apartment to stop her from leaving. Polly is not convinced she should stay with him, so Reuben eats food off the ground to prove he is capable of taking risks.

Reuben and Polly vacation on the same beach where he and Lisa had their honeymoon. Reuben again encounters Claude, but instead of being angry, he thanks Claude before heading into the water with Polly to join Van Lew on his new boat.

Cast

• Ben Stiller as Reuben Feffer
• Jennifer Aniston as Polly Prince
• Debra Messing as Lisa Kramer
• Philip Seymour Hoffman as Sandford "Sandy" Lyle
• Alec Baldwin as Stanley "Stan" Indursky
• Hank Azaria as Claude
• Missi Pyle as Roxanne
• Bryan Brown as Leland Van Lew
• Jsu Garcia as Javier
• Michele Lee as Vivian Feffer
• Bob Dishy as Irving Feffer
• Masi Oka as Wonsuk
• Judah Friedlander as Dustin
• Kym Whitley as Gladys
• Kevin Hart as Vic

Reception

Box office

The film opened at #1 at the U.S. Box office, earning $27,721,185 USD in its opening weekend, ending the month-long reign of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Critical response

Along Came Polly received negative reviews; critics commented that Aniston and Stiller did not make a convincing couple. The film holds an approval rating of 25% at Rotten Tomatoes based on 159 reviews (40 fresh, 119 rotten). Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score from 1 to 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film a 44 based on 35 critics. The film was a financial success, making $172 million at the box office worldwide off a $42 million budget.

Accolades

Ben Stiller earned a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Actor for his performance in the film (as well as for Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Envy and Starsky and Hutch).

Soundtrack

Additional music by:

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