The Layover (film)

The Layover is a 2017 American sex comedy[1] film starring Alexandra Daddario, Kate Upton, Matt Barr, Matt L. Jones, Rob Corddry, Kal Penn, and Molly Shannon. William H. Macy directed the film, which was written by David Hornsby and Lance Krall. Filming began early May 2015 in Vancouver, British Columbia and was completed early June 2015.

The Layover
Film poster
Directed byWilliam H. Macy
Produced by
  • Keith Kjarval
  • Aaron L. Gilbert
Written by
Starring
Music by
CinematographyMark Irwin
Edited byWendy Greene Bricmont
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release date
  • September 1, 2017 (2017-09-01) (United States)
Running time
88 minutes
Country
  • United States
LanguageEnglish

The film was released on August 3, 2017 through DirecTV Cinema, and then began a limited release and playing video on demand on September 1, 2017, by Vertical Entertainment.

Plot

Kate (Alexandra Daddario) and Meg (Kate Upton) are childhood friends and roommates in Seattle going through stressful times. Kate is a high school English teacher, who is bored of her regular curriculum and under pressure to quit from Principal Moss (Rob Corddry) who believes she should be in a different profession. Meg is a cosmetics saleswoman trying and failing to sell North Korean beauty products. After a night of drinking away their stress, the adventurous Meg suggests they go on vacation together to get their groove back. The reserved Kate is reluctant, but ultimately acquiesces as Meg had already booked non-refundable tickets to Fort Lauderdale using Kate's frequent flyer miles.

Barely making it to their flight on time, Kate is put in a window seat and Meg gets an aisle seat. The middle seat is eventually occupied by Ryan (Matt Barr), a handsome firefighter on his way to a wedding. Both Kate and Meg are immediately attracted to him and begin to shamelessly flirt with him, but Kate eventually passes out having taken too many anti-anxiety pills. A few hours into the flight, the plane is diverted to St. Louis due to a hurricane warning. The women are taken to the local Sheraton and bump into Ryan, who invites them to drinks at the hotel club. When Ryan learns the hurricane will delay his trip even further, the women attempt to cheer him up with a dance competition. Before going to bed, Kate tells Meg that she will fight her for Ryan's affections.

Their following day is unfortunate when during their ride in a hot air balloon, Kate has a panic attack due to fear of heights, and Meg accidentally pops a champagne cork into the only eye of the one-eyed pilot. Meg then injures her eye after a risky flip into the swimming pool.

When it is learned the hurricane will move away from Florida, Ryan is able to get a ride from Craig (Matt Jones), a jewelry salesman who had taken a liking to Meg but had been continually rebuffed by her, and the women ask to tag along. Kate shows embarrassing childhood photos of Meg to the guys for their amusement and in response, Meg locks Kate in a messy gas station bathroom, forcing Kate to escape through a high window covered in feces. Back in the car, Kate fakes an injury to get a massage from Ryan, prompting Meg to put sleeping pills into a bottle of wine to give to Kate. When Kate declines to drink, Craig, who is driving, takes it instead, much to Meg's horror. After a few hours, Craig eventually passes out and crashes the car, forcing the four to spend the night at a motel.

When Kate sees the pills in the bottle, she asks for a hotel room for herself. Meg says that she can have Ryan, but Kate proclaims she never wanted Ryan, just that she did not want Meg to have him. Meg decides to go to a local bar where Craig joins her. When Craig fails to impress Meg, he suggests to her that she should be open to the qualities of other guys. Back at the hotel, Ryan makes a pass at Kate, who gives in and has rigorous sex with him. In the morning at breakfast, Meg tells Kate they should stop ruining their friendship over a guy, but when Meg lets slip that Ryan has a misshaped penis, something Kate had seen from having sex with him, Kate realizes Meg had sex with Ryan as well and the two get into a physical fight, making a mess of the motel lobby in the process. Their fight ends when the motel manager calls the police on them.

Craig reveals to the police that Ryan had taken his car to reach the wedding on time. When he looks up Ryan's Google Plus profile, he sees that Ryan is the one getting married, and reveals this to the women. Appalled, they beg to be released to stop the wedding, and are let go after paying for the damage to the lobby. When they reach the hotel in Fort Lauderdale where the wedding is taking place, they find they were too late to stop it. The women confront Ryan, who calls them out on throwing themselves at him. The women still claim it was wrong for him to sleep with both of them the night before his wedding and not tell them he was the one being married. Ryan admits he had been with his now-wife Genevieve since freshman year of college and has not been able to get with anyone else. When the women meet Genevieve, they see that she is controlling and demanding of Ryan, and decide not to tell her about his actions, feeling Ryan will suffer enough in his marriage. With a few hours before their flight back to Seattle, Meg tracks down Craig at his jewelry shop to apologize for brushing him off, kissing him before she leaves. At the airport, Meg tells Kate that they should not live together anymore, to which Kate tearfully agrees, as they have been too dependent on each other.

Kate returns to her job with renewed vigor, and she requests of Principal Moss that her students be allowed to indulge their creativity more instead of just following the standard curriculum. Moss reveals to Kate that he had no intention of firing her; he actually wants to offer her the assistant volleyball coach position. Meg starts taking classes and is in a long-distance relationship with Craig. It is shown that Meg moved into an apartment only a few doors down from Kate so the two can still be close.

Cast

Production

On March 25, 2015, it was announced that William H. Macy would direct and star in a road-trip sex comedy film, titled The Layover, scripted by David Hornsby and Lance Krall.[1] Keith Kjarval would produce through Unified Pictures, along with Aaron L. Gilbert through Bron Studios.[1] Lea Michele and Kate Upton were cast to play best friends who decide to take a vacation to avoid their problems.[1] On April 24, 2015, TheWrap revealed that Alexandra Daddario joined the film; she replaced Michele after she left the project.[2] Rob Corddry, Kal Penn and Matt Barr were confirmed for the cast on May 7, 2015, by THR,[3] and Matt L. Jones was also added.[4] Macy ultimately did not appear in the film.

Filming began in the first week of May 2015[3] in Vancouver, British Columbia, and wrapped in the second week of June 2015.[5]

Release

The film debuted on DirecTV Cinema on August 3, 2017, followed by a limited release through Vertical Entertainment on September 1, 2017.[6][7]

Reception

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 0%, based on reviews from 18 critics, with an average rating of 1.8/10.[8] On Metacritic, it has a score of 15 out of 100 based on 7 reviews, indicating an "overwhelming dislike".[9]

Ben Kenigsberg, writing for The New York Times, states that the film is just about fighting over a man.[10] Richard Roeper, writing for Chicago Sun-Times, compared the movie to the unpleasantness of enduring a layover at O'Hare International Airport, decried the performance of Upton, and expressed surprise that Macy could be responsible for directing such "an unholy mess".[11]

gollark: Why specifically an x87?
gollark: Yes, that was an inspiration, although it's probably derived from something else.
gollark: Also I/O. Also somehow.
gollark: There would be ways to summon new pieces somehow.
gollark: Chess esolang: you have an infinitely large chess grid with various exotic pieces or something?

References
  1. Fleming Jr, Mike (March 25, 2015). "Lea Michele, Kate Upton, William H. Macy Team For Road Trip Comedy 'The Layover'". deadline.com. Retrieved May 8, 2015.
  2. Sneider, Jeff (April 24, 2015). "'San Andreas' Star Alexandra Daddario Joins William H. Macy's 'The Layover' (Exclusive)". thewrap.com. Retrieved May 8, 2015.
  3. Kit, Borys (May 7, 2015). "Rob Corddry, Kal Penn, Matt Barr Join William H. Macy's 'The Layover' (Exclusive)". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved May 8, 2015.
  4. Hipes, Patrick (May 7, 2015). "Tim Griffin Joins 'Central Intelligence'; Alexandra Daddario In For 'The Layover'". deadline.com. Retrieved May 8, 2015.
  5. The Layover [@thelayoverfilm] (9 June 2015). "That's a wrap on The Layover! Thanks to @bocaresort - what a great place to finish the film" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  6. N'Duka, Amanda (April 11, 2017). "William H. Macy's 'The Layover' Lands At Vertical & DirecTV; Chiller Films Clicks On 'Camera Obscura'". deadline.com. Retrieved April 12, 2017.
  7. Crust, Kevin (April 21, 2017). "Every single movie coming out this summer". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
  8. "The Layover (2017)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  9. "The Layover Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  10. Kenigsberg, Ben (August 31, 2017). "Review: Fighting Dirty, Over a Man, in 'The Layover'". The New York Times. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  11. Roeper, Richard (September 3, 2017). "'The Layover': Bad acting by Kate Upton, co-stars fuels air disaster". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
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