Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Man Up Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 1, 2016

There’s a certain familiar and therefore predictable trajectory to many romantic comedies, including many that have become the most popular entries in this ever expanding genre. A couple meets cute and may seem perfect for each other (at least to the audience if not to the characters themselves), but then a series of obstacles intervenes before true love conquers all in the (happy) end. All of those proclivities are firmly on hand throughout Man Up, but like many winning rom-coms, the predictability and well worn plot ruts the film slogs through never seriously deflate a largely enjoyable soufflé. In what almost be thought of as a quasi-Bridget Jones's Diary knockoff, Man Up follows the travails of a lovelorn thirtysomething Brit named Nancy (Lake Bell, sporting a believable English accent, proving that the dialects and idiolects she displayed in her wonderful In a World... were no fluke), a woman with a somewhat loudly ticking biological clock who just can’t seem to meet the right man, despite the fevered attempts to lend a hand by her family and friends. Adding insult to injury is the fact that Nancy’s long (as in long) married parents are about to celebrate a significant anniversary and the whole family is gathering to commemorate the event. Nancy is in fact in the midst of a bothersome phone conversation with her sister about both Nancy's inability to find a meaningful relationship (or even a one night stand) as well as the upcoming anniversary celebration when she boards a train on the way to the family reunion. She just so happens to sit across from a young woman named Jessica (Ophelia Lovibond), a kind of nosy and "all knowing" twenty-something who overhears Nancy's "issues" and instantly recommends (actually, kind of insists) that Nancy read the relationship book Jessica herself is clutching to her heaving breast, a self help tome called Six Billion People and You: A Guide to Meeting Your Mate in the Modern World. Jessica alerts Nancy to the fact that not only is the book indispensable, it is actually the reason that Jessica is on the way to meeting her "mate" on a blind date where the two will recognize each other due to the fact that each will be holding the book according to a pre-arranged plan. Prescient viewers will already guess what's going to happen next, and indeed it does. Jessica leaves Nancy her copy of the book (with a literally pointed reminder that Nancy's "negativity" is affecting her prospects), and when Nancy runs after Jessica to return it, she is "found" by Jessica's supposed blind date, a forty-something divorcé named Jack (Simon Pegg).

The first part of of Man Up’s relationship escapades plies fairly traditional territory as Nancy quickly figures out that assuming Jessica’s identity comes with certain hazards, since while this is a putative blind date, both Jessica and Jack have friends in common and had (obviously) been communicating with each other. That opens up certain farcical elements that Bell’s loosey-goosey physicality and bumbling verbal proclivities are able to exploit perfectly, even as Pegg documents a kind of sad resignation that Jack has come to embrace after his divorce.

Part of the traditional feeling comes courtesy of the fact that Tess Morris’ mostly spry screenplay offers callbacks to previous relationships for both Nancy and Jack in the opening gambit of their supposed blind date. For Nancy, it’s the appearance of Sean (Rory Kinnear), a take no prisoners type who it turns out carried a rather substantial torch for Nancy back in the day and who threatens to blow her cover as Jessica. For Jack, it’s the appearance of his harridan ex-wife Hilary (Olivia Williams), an appearance which helps to focus Nancy’s kinder tendencies as she pretends to be a longtime squeeze of Jack’s in order to lessen the indignity Jack is feeling.

In other ways, though, Man Up is commendably atypical in how it develops the plot. Nancy’s alter ego is blown surprisingly early in the proceedings, even as her night with Jack continues, something that tends to let the screenplay and characters breathe a little more naturally as the film moves through its second act. Even better, once the expected trials accrue and the real Jessica reenters the picture, there’s a very nicely done scene that reveals the seemingly snarky Jessica is actually a sweetheart who’s an unabashed romantic.

The film probably wastes a bit of energy in a needlessly over convoluted coda which sees both Sean and Jack attempting to get back to Nancy, who has finally made it to her parents’ 40th anniversary celebration. A rote confessional speech by Jack caps the film in a kind of blah but admittedly affecting manner, leading to that inevitable happy ending. Man Up is often quite winningly comedic, if only rarely laugh out loud hilarious, but it benefits from two extremely affable performances by Pegg and Bell. Director Ben Palmer paces things very well and the film offers some brief but evocative looks at various nice London locations.

Man Up Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Man Up is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. While the film ventures out of doors in bright daylight for at least a little while in the early going, scenes where the palette pops agreeably and detail levels are generally quite high, a lot of the film takes place in kind of shrouded environments like clubs or darkened alleyways, environments than in and of themselves tend to work against a really vivid visual presentation style. Still, colors look natural, with reds especially nicely burnished throughout, and strong contrast helps the film segue between times of day/night and exterior and interior locations quite well. This has an appealingly organic look, with good depth and texture, but with occasional deficits in shadow detail in some of the darkest moments. There are no issues with image instability and no overt compression anomalies.

Man Up Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Man Up's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track offers quite a bit of surround activity courtesy of the source cues which are slathered on pretty heavily throughout the film's running time. The fact that the film careens from location to location as Jack and Nancy forge their cautious relationship also presents opportunities for some good, raucous activity in settings like bars. Quieter dialogue scenes, especially those outside, include at least occasional discrete placement of ambient environmental sounds.

Man Up Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Gag Reel (1080p; 6:23)


• Simon and Lake Interview Clips (1080p; 4:07)


• The Seven Beats of Man Up (1080p; 40:32) is a fun quasi-EPK with lots of behind the scenes footage and good interviews.

Man Up Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You have to hand it to a film that offers a "meet cute" that features a reference to The Silence of the Lambs rather than perhaps more expected fare like, say, An Affair to Remember, though of course Sleepless In Seattle had already done that, so maybe it was time to move on to Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling. But even beyond patently outré and probably overly precious elements like that, Man Up turns out to be a rather sweet natured and nicely detailed look at two characters in crisis. This, kind of like Bell's In a World..., may be less of a laugh-a-thon than some might be expecting, but it does provide a lot of material that exploits the awkward tendencies of both Bell and Pegg. Highly recommended.