The tepid high school reunion dramedy “10 Years” enlists seemingly all of Hollywood’s early-30-something actors to play the world’s best-looking Class of ’02. There’s not a misfit among them. Oh, for a Romy. Or a Michele.
Channing Tatum — approaching market saturation, but not quite there yet — anchors the story as Jake, en route to his 10-year reunion with girlfriend Jess (Tatum’s real-life wife, Jenna Dewan-Tatum), whom he loves but is hedging on proposing to. What’s stopping him? Could it be the memory of Mary (Rosario Dawson), his first love, now married to business-suited Paul (Ron Livingston)?
Jake’s buddy Cully (Chris Pratt), clearly pining for the old days, hosts a vodka-heavy pre-party for their group while his wife, Sam (Ari Graynor), looks after the kids. Marty (Justin Long) and A.J. (Max Minghella) swap humblebrags about their fabulous lives, while rock-star Reeves (Oscar Isaac), the local celebrity, assures his manager he’ll be back on the road in no time.
At the main event, former class queen Anna (Lynn Collins) works an “I’m still awesome” angle a little too hard, while stylish wallflower Elise (Kate Mara) is shocked to discover Reeves not only remembers her but has tended a crush for all these years — revealed in his heartfelt performance of his hit song, the best moment in the film.
Gradually, Anna and assorted others are discovered to be not quite the people they’re trying to present to their peers — or to their current significant others, as when Andre (Anthony Mackie) brings up his pal Garrity’s (Brian Geraghty) past as a black-culture aficionado, which comes as a surprise to his wife (Aubrey Plaza).
Overall, though, the stakes are pretty low for this likable, tipsy crowd. Maybe I’m just too steeped in the underdog lore of “Freaks and Geeks” and “Awkward,” but is there anything less narratively interesting than a high school reunion that focuses exclusively on the beautiful and popular crowd? Who all now seem to be leading normal, if flawed, lives?
Even Cully’s fleeting interaction with the nerdy kids he used to harass — denoted in the cast list only as Band Geek, Taller Geek, etc. — seems played more for spectacle than self-awareness. He apologizes to a degree that becomes borderline threatening, then gets so wasted he ends up tackling one of them again. Graynor, as the wife, gives him a little tough love, but you know ultimately he’s a decent husband and father, so it’s all good, man.
Personally, I’d have encouraged first-time director Jamie Linden (writer of “Dear John” and “We Are Marshall”) to spend a little time on whomever was motivated to scrawl “Still a douche” on Cully’s face with a Sharpie while he was passed out. What was that person’s “10 Years” like, I wonder?