I adore Anna Faris. I'd even go so far that she might be the funniest and most daring comedic actress working today... or at least she has the capacity to be so when she picks the right movie. And while WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER? has a few very big laughs spread across its running time, it doesn't represent Faris at her best, as in films like SCARY MOVIE, THE HOUSE BUNNY, or OBSERVE AND REPORT.
Instead what we get is a really forced plot about Ally Darling, who refuses to sleep with any more men because she read in a magazine somewhere that if a woman hasn't found a husband by the time she's slept with 20 men, she likely never will. And guess what number Ally is resting on? Instead of looking for new men, she hires her handsome neighbor (Chris Evans) to track down her 20 previous conquests and see if any of them turned into men worth marrying; that way she doesn't have to add to her booty count.
Some of the encounters with these old partners are kind of funny, thanks to brief appearances by Chris Pratt, Andy Sandberg and Martin Freeman. But those humorous moments are fleeting, and director Mark Mylod (known best for his TV work on "Entourage" and "Shameless") rarely taps into the kind of edgy humor that Faris does best. And WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER? is an R-rated film, so the opportunity was there.
It doesn't help that Evans is at his full-on most scoundrelly charming and walks around a lot in his underwear. He frequently makes the trip across the hall to hide from the women who have slept over and he wants to leave. Then there's the unnecessary second plot (it takes up too much time to call a subplot) about Ally's sister (Ari Graynor) getting married. Because why wouldn't Ally pick a very busy time in her family's life to do this big search? And I never quite figured out what the big hurry way to find all of these men.
WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER? is a cluttered mess of a film, produced by Faris, that feels like it's trying to be all things to all people. It wants to be a paint-by-number chick flick, but it also revels in its raunch. And it has the sad misfortune of having the exact same opening bit that the far superior BRIDESMAIDS does, in which Faris wakes up before her latest sex partner (an amusing cameo by Zachary Quinto), does her hair and makeup, brushes her teeth, and makes herself presentable before he wakes up. Even if this sequence was shot with no knowledge of BRIDESMAID, shouldn't this new film have shot something new? I'm just saying.
The failure of WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER? to produce any lasting, sustained laughter doesn't make me like Faris any less. I suspect that she'll get more daring and adventurous as the years go on, but fans of hers might want to wait until that happens before venturing back into a movie theater to check out one of her movies. This one is a clunker, and its number is zero.
