Walk Of Shame (2014) – Film Review

Walk of Shame poster.jpg

Walk Of Shame

Starring Elizabeth Banks, James Marsden, and Gillian Jacobs

Directed and written by Steven Brill

IMDB Rating: 6

Review written by Rachel Geiger [Become a contributor!]

To be completely honest, this is a film filled with flaws and it’s one that I wouldn’t recommend. The humor feels rather forced and the film as a whole comes off as misogynistic. Not even the typically charming and quirky Elizabeth Banks could save this one from going bad.

Meghan (Banks) is a segment reporter who is being considered for a position at a local TV station, but then is informed that they chose someone else over her. Her friends take her clubbing after her boyfriend leaves her and takes all his stuff. She meets a charming man named Gordon (Marsden) and wakes up the next morning in only her underwear. She receives a call that she got the job at the TV station. She rushes off without her phone. Then a bunch of events unravel as she tries to make her way to the station, including her paranormal ability to make cats act psychotic towards her and her being mistaken for a prostitute.

The bad in this movie begins with the plot. Instantly, you can tell that this story was written by a man. Strike one was the whole making it clear that Elizabeth Banks’s character isn’t the type of girl who typically engages in this behavior. Strike two was the whole prostitute storyline in general. I just didn’t get why it was needed at all, the story would have been actually better if it was left out. Strike three was the whole cat thing, which also was confusing and strange, instead of being hilarious. I feel like the way that the film portrayed women in general was offensive, especially since it took place in 2014.

The acting from Elizabeth Banks wasn’t exactly terrible, it just wasn’t good enough to make up for the poor plot. She does engage in quite a bit of physical activity in the film including: bike riding, running, and then running some more. I do like James Marsden, but I feel like he tends to play the same charming male interest in the majority of his films. Sure, he doesn’t always end up getting the girl, but he still is the pretty boy who has money and parents seem to immediately love. Anyway, I feel like there was no depth at all to his performance as a whole. Part of this is obviously due to the writing, but I think he could have approached it differently as well.

Personally, I feel like the film would have been less offensive with a female director and writer. However, it is what it is, I just feel like this was a film that wasn’t well done or progressive. He was trying way too hard to make a female version of The Hangover and it turned out to not work at all. In the scheme of things though, the film itself wasn’t terrible. He actually did a decent job with filming all the active scenes involving Meghan.

Walk Of Shame was a film that I believe could have been done a lot better. I don’t think I laughed out loud even one time, which was a serious disappointment to say the least. This was a flawed movie that was filled with one too many prostitute jokes. It also had borderline offensive stereotypes, including the fact that all the neighborhoods Meghan ended up in just so happened to be completely non-white. How does that exactly work? I personally think that those of you that are looking for a film that will make you laugh out loud should definitely look elsewhere.

One response to “Walk Of Shame (2014) – Film Review

  1. Pingback: 10 Film Review – W | The Culture Cove·

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