Netflix comedy-drama with “Breaking Bad” star searches for the right words
From Robert Scucci
| Published
Imagine a world where greeting card companies have disproportionate power over their employees and use their resources to manipulate the masses, one sleazy love letter at a time. This is the world that Bob Odenkirk’s Ray Wentworth occupies in 2017 Girlfriend’s Daya romantic crime comedy that is as absurd as it is ambitious. If you play it straight as a legitimate crime drama with deadpan dialogue, Girlfriend’s Day is as sweet as a box of chocolates on Valentine’s Day and as gooey as a jilted ex-lover slashing your tires when he realizes he’s left his Elliot Smith record with you and finds out you’re his Blocked number when he tried to get it back.
Although I wanted to love this film because I’ve been a fan of Odenkirk’s work ever since Mr. Show with Bob and DavidI can’t say that’s it breaking Bad And You better call Saul Stern’s finest hour. The storyboard is crazy, but the concept itself would be better served with a 30-minute runtime rather than stretching it out into a 70-minute feature film.
The Writer’s Dilemma
Girlfriend’s Day begins with Ray Wentworth (Bob Odenkirk), recently divorced, alcoholic greeting card writer who works for AAAAA Greetings. Ray is known for writing sweet, succinct and profound lyrics. He’s a household name and his contributions to the greeting card industry are legendary. However, Cormac McCarthy once said, “If there’s a career threat to writing, it’s drinking,” and Ray tends to get lost in the sauce more often than he’s lucid, resulting in a severe bout of writer’s block and a Significant number of blackouts leads to his termination from AAAAA Greetings.
Ray meets a former and now homeless colleague named Taft (Larry Fessenden), who left the company to pursue a career as a writer. When Ray gets an all-too-real glimpse of his own future through Taft, he knows he doesn’t have much time to get his life back together.
The complex setup
In the next three months Girlfriend’s Day In the timeline, Ray falls into an alcoholic depression. Until Ray is approached by his former boss Stuyvesant (Alex Karpovsky). Stuyvesant explains that the state of California is holding a card-writing contest for a new company holiday called Girlfriend’s Day.
The only golden rule for competition is: current Greeting Card employees are not allowed to attend, meaning Ray is the perfect man to get the job done.
When Ray sneaks into his old AAAAA office to get supplies, he finds a mortally wounded Taft bleeding to death from a stab wound. When Ray wakes up on his couch the next day after being knocked unconscious by an unseen assailant, he has a hazy memory of the events of the night before.
After being confronted by a homicide detective named Miller (Kevin O’Grady), Ray meets a charming woman named Jill (Amber Tamblyn) and learns that she owns a greeting card shop. The spark between the two future lovers quickly ignites and romantic things begin to improve for Ray.
Newly in love with a musical character, Ray faces a whole new set of problems after learning that Miller works for both AAAAA Greetings and Paper Hearts – two rival greeting card companies both owned by the Gundy Brothers, Robert (Stacy Keach) and Dillon (never seen on screen). Warned by Miller that he will be framed for Taft’s murder if he doesn’t bend to the Gundy brothers’ will, Ray finds himself in the middle of a grand conspiracy to make sure his girlfriend’s day goes smoothly.
Should have been a comedy sketch
Girlfriend’s Day suffers from a serious problem that undermines its storytelling: it shouldn’t have been a movie. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve extolled the virtues of a short, fast-paced runtime in the past, but only when the format makes sense for the story being told. In my mind, Girlfriend’s Day would have been a powerful, extended sketch to live in Mr Show Universe, not unlike the infamously dark and surreal 1994 sketch “Love and Sausages,” produced by The children in the hall.
Girlfriend’s Day However, it is not without charm. Narrated by David Lynch and starring Steven Michael Quezada (breaking Bad) as Ray’s quirky landlord Munoz, it’s an adequately acted comedy with excellent chemistry between the leads, but it leaves me wanting less, which in this case would be more than enough to get its point across.
You can stream Girlfriends Day on Netflix if the drama, deception, and deadpan delivery sound like something you’re looking for in your life.
