Netflix Comedy Drama With Breaking Bad Star Looks For All The Right Words
Imagine a world where greeting card companies have a disproportionate amount of power over their employees and use their resources to manipulate the masses, one sappy love letter at a time. This is the world that Bob Odenkirk’s Ray Wentworth occupies in 2017’s Girlfriend’s Day, a romantic crime comedy that’s as absurd as it is ambitious. Playing it straight as a legitimate crime drama loaded with deadpan dialogue, Girlfriend’s Day is as sweet as a box of chocolates on Valentine’s Day, and as viscous as a jilted ex-lover who slashes your tires when they realize they left their Elliot Smith record at your place and they find out you blocked their number when they try to retrieve it.
While I wanted to love this movie because I’ve been a fan of Odenkirk’s work since Mr. Show with Bob and David, I can’t say that it’s the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul star’s finest hour. The storyboard is insane, but the concept itself would have been better served by a 30-minute runtime instead of getting stretched into feature-length film clocking in at 70 minutes.
The Writer’s Dilemma
Girlfriend’s Day kicks off with Ray Wentworth (Bob Odenkirk), a recently divorced alcoholic greeting card writer working for AAAAA Greetings. Known for penning sweet nothings that are equal parts pithy and profound, Ray is a household name, and his contributions to the greeting card industry are the stuff of legend. However, Cormac McCarthy once said that “if there’s an occupational hazard to writing, it’s drinking,” and Ray tends to get lost in the sauce more often than he’s lucid, resulting in a severe bout of writer’s block and a healthy amount of blackouts leading to his termination from AAAAA Greetings.
Ray runs into a former, and now homeless, colleague named Taft (Larry Fessenden), who left the business to pursue a career as a novelist. Catching an all-too-real glimpse at his own future through Taft, Ray knows he doesn’t have a lot of time to get his life back on track.
The Elaborate Setup
Over the next three months on Girlfriend’s Day’s timeline, Ray spirals into alcoholic depression. That is, until Ray is approached by his former boss, Stuyvesant (Alex Karpovsky). Stuyvesant explains that the state of California is holding a card writing contest for a new corporate holiday called Girlfriend’s Day.
The one golden rule for the contest is that current greeting card employees aren’t allowed to participate, meaning that Ray is the perfect guy to get the job done.
When Ray sneaks into his old AAAAA office to retrieve some supplies, he finds a mortally wounded Taft, who’s bleeding out from a stab wound. Waking up the next day on his couch after getting knocked out by an unseen assailant, Ray has a foggy recollection of the events that transpired the night before.
After getting confronted by a homicide detective named Miller (Kevin O’Grady), Ray meets a charming woman named Jill (Amber Tamblyn) and learns that she owns a greeting card shop. Sparks between the two soon-to-be lovers quickly ignite, and things start to be looking up for Ray on the romantic front.
Newly smitten with a muse-like figure, Ray has a whole new set of problems to deal with after learning that Miller is working for both AAAAA Greetings and Paper Hearts– two rival greeting card companies that are both owned by the Gundy Brothers, Robert (Stacy Keach) and Dillon (never seen on screen). Warned by Miller that he’ll be framed for Taft’s murder if he doesn’t bend to the will of the Gundy brothers, Ray finds himself in the middle of a grand conspiracy to make sure Girlfriend’s Day goes off without a hitch.
Should Have Been A Comedy Skit
GFR SCORE
Girlfriend’s Day suffers from one serious problem that undermines its storytelling: it shouldn’t have been a movie. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve extolled the virtues of a tight runtime with quick pacing in the past, but only if the format makes sense for the story that’s being told. In my mind, Girlfriend’s Day would have been a powerhouse extended skit living in the Mr. Show universe, not unlike the infamously gritty and surreal 1994 “Love and Sausages” skit produced by The Kids in the Hall.
Girlfriend’s Day isn’t without its charm, however. Narrated by David Lynch, and featuring Steven Michael Quezada (Breaking Bad) as Ray’s crotchety landlord, Munoz, it’s an adequately acted work of comedy with excellent chemistry among its principal cast, but leaves me wanting less, which in this case, would be more than enough to get its point across.
You can stream Girlfriends Day on Netflix if the drama, deceit, and deadpan delivery sound like something you’re looking for in your life.
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