Movie Review: ‘Buddymoon’

Former child actor David (Grimm‘s David Giuntoli) is unceremoniously dumped by his fiancée days before their wedding. As he wallows in self-pity, his endlessly optimistic best man Flula (Pitch Perfect 2‘s Flula Borg) decides the best way to get his friend back on track is to drag David along on a Buddymoon – aka the hiking trip that was planned for David’s honeymoon through the beautiful Oregon mountains.

Buddymoon is, in the simplest terms, an indie flick about friendship – or a “buddy” film, if you will – but it’s the intangibles here that make it more endearing than the standard indie. Giuntoli and Borg have a wonderful rapport and an undeniable chemistry that obviously spills over from their real-life friendship – they were past roommates in Los Angeles.

Director Alex Simmons, behind the camera for Buddymoon, was also a roommate of his two stars and shows a lot of poise in his feature debut. There’s a noticeable comfort level and ease between the director and his actors and you can certainly feel a lot of love went into every scene both in front and behind the camera.

Without that love, Buddymoon would likely have been a lot less endearing considering its plot is fairly predictable from minute one. Much of the film feels familiar because we’ve seen this type of story before, but thankfully the irresistible exuberance of Borg and the general likability of Giuntoli keep the viewer invested.

Buddymoon‘s two leads carry most of the screen time, but there are a few solid supporting roles (not much more than cameos actually) that help break up the film. Brian T. Finney is a scene-stealer as the eccentric conspiracy theorist hiker that David and Flula run into in the wilderness, and David’s Grimm co-star Claire Coffee runs into the boys on the trail and piques David’s romantic interest.

I’ll also tip my hat to some nice choices from Simmons that added a great amount of personality to Buddymoon. Particularly, the film opens with David auditioning for the role of William Clark in a biographical film about the historical Lewis and Clark, and from there the movie is framed with a voice-over of David reading the actual diary of Clark that cleverly parallels the boys’ journey. The film also has some gorgeous on-location shots of the Oregon wilderness accompanied by a well put together group of songs and orchestration.

The film is real nice showcase for both Giuntoli and Borg (whose stock should rise with this) while providing a solid feature debut for director Alex Simmons. Buddymoon never redefines any genres or breaks new ground in its story telling, but its undeniable charm will leave you with the warm fuzzies when the credits roll.