Are We Officially Dating?

When Zac Efron’s womanising Jason rides out the lingering, morning-after effects of Viagra by resting naked on a toilet, his transition from High School Musical teen heartthrob to twenty-something pseudo-substantial actor is almost complete. Are We Officially Dating? may be an empty, throwaway romantic comedy unconvincingly posited as different due to its not-as-smart-as-it-thinks-it-is male perspective, as well as Efron’s least interesting part of late, but it eschews his idolised persona for something much more fascinating.

In his professional life, Jason (Efron, Parkland) designs book covers with his best friend Daniel (Miles Teller, The Spectacular Now). In his personal dealings, he cycles through a roster of women to avoid any seriousness in his liaisons. The fun and the frivolous remains his domain, more so when his married doctor pal Mikey (Michael B. Jordan, Fruitvale Station) returns to singledom. Soon, the reformed threesome are taking to the town in search of commitment-averse antics, and making wagers that each can remain footloose, fancy-free and blissfully unattached. 

The journey that debut writer/director Tom Gormican plots for his trio of characters plays to the predictable and pedestrian, as Jason catches the eye of aspiring author Ellie (Imogen Poots, Filth), Daniel gravitates to friend and wing-woman Chelsea (Mackenzie Davis, Breathe In), and Mikey learns hard truths with his ex-wife Vera (Jessica Lucas, Evil Dead). Awkward moments abound; indeed,That Awkward Moment is the film’s title in the United States. The moniker refers not to the amusing anxiety that emanates from the attempts to date without consequences, but stems from the discomfort of defining relationships that plagues the protagonists, and the purported masculine tendency to abandon rather than explore the chance for something more.

Of course, Gormican paints in stereotypes as much as any other unimaginative purveyor of the rom-com genre; subversion stems not from men expectedly diverging from their single ways in the name of love, nor from the unremarkable romantic interests placed in their path, but in pitching its leading man in the guise of the lady-killing lothario. After The Paperboy and Liberal Arts, Efron adds to a growing resume of against-type roles, radiating charm with rote lines and repetitive plot points, and wringing intrigue out of a thinly-drawn character with flimsy motivations. His ease in his performance says more than the part itself, the film and the actor both at their best when they embrace the disconnect between perception and reality. Efron reinvented is a slightly sleazy, somewhat bad-boy standard, but immensely more enjoyable than the idealised version, even when a product of average material. 

Teller and Jordan, both excellent in their most recent showings, also fall victim to the chasm between their charisma and the requirements of the content, but both help lift an uninspired story. It is in the casting rather than the supposedly comedic narrative that elicits modest entertainment amid the rampant immaturity, despite the reliance upon crude gags and convenient categorisations. That’s Are We Officially Dating? in a nutshell – conventional, clichéd, and not without glimpses of colour, but stacked with the potential for something more in its components. Though its best is saved for an end-credits out-take that makes the most of its performers’ pedigree, the film’s modus operandi isn’t without its fleeting moments, awkward and otherwise.