Take Me Home Tonight (2011)
Directed by Michael Dowse
Written by Jackie Filgo, Jeff Filgo
Starring Topher Grace, Anna Faris, Teresa Palmer, Dan Fogler
Release Date March 4th, 2011
Published March 3rd, 2011
Nostalgia is a great selling point; so long as the seller knows truly what is being sold. You are essentially selling memories back to those who had them. You are selling familiarity and the comfort of things remembered. The makers of “Take Me Home Tonight” are aware of what they are selling and the pitch is funny enough that you won't regret buying it.
Topher Grace is the star of “Take Me Home Tonight” as confused underachiever, Matt Franklin. Sure, Matt graduated from M.I.T but he's now back home in California and working at Suncoast Video at the mall. Matt has no idea what to do with the rest of his life but his day takes shape when into his store walks his high school crush, Tori Fredericking (Teresa Palmer.)
She is attending an annual party being thrown by Matt's twin sister Wendy (Anna Faris) and her jerk boyfriend Kyle (Chris Pratt), a party Matt has always skipped. He will be attending this year however because tonight he will finally ask for Tori's number. Along for the ride will be Matt's only friend Barry (Dan Fogler) who skipped college but is intent on getting the experience of college back in a single night.
It's an epic night with fights and drugs and sex and all kinds of classic 80's music from the title song, courtesy of Eddie Money, to The Safety Dance, to INXS and even a breakdancing scene. I think I heard a little Duran Duran in there as well; you can't have an 80's set movie without Duran Duran can you?
Continuity nerds may want to skip “Take Me Home Tonight” as there are plenty of anachronisms to catalog but for those who don't know what year a particular song was released or when a particular TV show debuted, you should be able to focus on the more charming elements of this warm bit of Nostalgia.
Of all of the cast members on “That 70's Show,” another warm bit of nostalgia, Topher Grace has always been my favorite. Grace has an every guy quality, a nebbishy charm, that makes him more relatable than Ashton or Danny Masterson and the rest who all seemed to work very hard at appearing cool.
Grace did yeoman's work on “That 70's Show” demonstrating how ‘trying’ to be cool is a futile effort. Called upon to continually sacrifice his dignity, Grace did so with a genuine comic flair. He has brought that same genuine quality to his film work, though few have noticed, his movies like “Win a Date With Tad Hamilton,” “In Good Company” and “P.S” have been almost universally ignored.
Box office success however is not the measure of a good performer and Grace shows in “Take Me Home Tonight” why he is so damn likable, he works harder at it than most do. Grace is funny; he has a good instinct for the laugh. He's handsome in a non-threatening way, i.e. you could leave your girlfriend alone in a room with him without worry.
It all adds up in “Take Me Home Tonight” to a lead character who is easy to like and easy to root for and it's shocking when you realize how many movies fail at creating that character. On the weekend “Take Me Home Tonight” hits theaters so does a movie called “Beastly” where not one thoughtful, interesting or even modestly likable character emerges.
See “Take Me Home Tonight” for that warm, nostalgic feeling it offers and for Topher Grace, a funny guy who deserves a better box office fate than some of his former co-stars who have seen so much unearned adulation and star-power despite having a lesser resume.
