Film Review: Topher Grace Goes to 1980s in ‘Take Me Home Tonight’

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CHICAGO – Nostalgia films need a couple of elements to make them work. First, instant recognition with the era, and second, a reason to go there. “Take Me Home Tonight” lacks both characteristics, and lead actor Topher Grace can’t seem to light a fire under the rest of it.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

This film is set in the late 1980s, although the timeline is quite vague. As in most look-back scenarios, there are a parade of fashions from the era, conveniently set up in a big party scene. Even though the costumes and the soundtrack kept telling us it’s the ‘80s, it never felt that way, and the romantic comedy narrative could have been set in last week.

Topher Grace portrays Matt Franklin, a nebbish post-college graduate still pining for Tori (Teresa Palmer), his high school crush. Despite the background that he is a whip-smart MIT engineering graduate, he still lives with his parents and works at the local video store. As fate would have it, his lost love enters the store, and he proceeds to woo her with an elaborate lie. He tells her he works for Goldman Sachs, an investment banker, the same industry she is in. She then asks him to the Big Party, where he’ll have to keep the subterfuge going.

Meanwhile, Matt’s best friend Barry (Dan Folger) has been fired from his car salesman job, and laments with Matt and his sister Wendy (Anna Faris). They come up with a plan to steal a Mercedes from the car lot, to give Matt further credibility as a financial player. The heist goes off, and Matt pulls up to the Big Party in grand style. Wendy’s boyfriend Kyle (Chris Pratt) is throwing the bash, and even plans to pop the question that very night.

Matt does hook up with Tori at the party, and even goes with her to a fancier gathering with important financial people in attendance, including an actual Goldman Sachs employee (Demetri Martin). With reputation and romance on the line, Matt will take on all challenges thrown at him – including a giant steel ball – to prove that he is worthy of his one true love.

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Take Me Home Tonight”

Rewind: Topher Grace (Matt) and Teresa Palmer (Tori) in ‘Take Me Home Tonight’ Photo credit: Ron Batzdorff for © Relativity Media

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Take Me Home Tonight”