If you go into it with the mindset that it's more of a long-form, ensemble stand-up comedy routine than a movie I think you'll like it a lot better than most critics have. Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jim Gaffigan, Rob Riggle, Christina Applegate, Mike Birbiglia (in only one scene, but that one scene is hysterical), and yes, even Justin Long have a multitude of great lines and they all deliver them beautifully. I rarely find rom-coms tolerable and they almost never make me laugh, but Going the Distance had me -- and the press screening full of critics who are curiously panning it -- rolling. That's probably because, like I said, it's not really a romantic comedy, but for a lot of people, that's a good thing.

If you saw She's Out of My League, this movie follows a similar format -- very little focus on the movie's ostensible main couple, huge emphasis on their zany friends and family. Though Going the Distance is funnier than that movie is, it does have some major drawbacks. One is that it makes you watch Drew Barrymore masturbate. Now, I get her point of view that she's a grown woman and has every right to be as openly sexual as she wants to be, but the fact of the matter is that she was in E.T. and Never Been Kissed and I feel like I kind of know her and I don't want to watch her masturbate. Call me old-fashioned, but that's the way I feel.

And I don't know if it's because it was directed by a documentarian (Nanette Burstein, director of American Teen) but the movie is sort of a weird NYC travelogue for most of it. During their six week courtship, the couple do every New York-y activity imaginable -- boating in Central Park, football in Central Park, Coney Island, indie rock shows at Rebel, enormo hungover breakfasts in Williamsburg diners, golf at Chelsea Piers, dive bar arcade wars -- my, they were well traveled! Note to filmmakers: placing bad characters in a New York setting just because New York is awesome does not automatically make those bad characters awesome. Just ask Sex and the City.

Another problem is that Long and Barrymore's characters don't have fully realized personalities in any way, unless you count being kind of dumb a sort of personality. For one thing, they both seem to think they can thrive in two of the very most dying industries in the country: music and newspapers, respectively. She actually says the words "I think newspapers are going to make a comeback" and scoffs at blogging (hey!), and no one has the heart to tell her what an idiot she's being. Other than that, the only things they have in common are the kinds of records they like and an interest in memes, because this movie's script put absolutely zero thought into who their characters are or why they would be in such very deep love at all, but whatever -- I got to watch Charlie Day go on a rant about baby pigeons, so I'm happy.

Did you see it? Tell us what you thought, and then check out our list of the worst movies starring real-life couples.