Director: Warren P. Sonoda (Cooper’s Camera, Puck Hogs)
Screenplay: Liam Card
Producers: Marc Rigaux
Starring: Jason Lewis, Carly Pope, Eric McCormack, Liam Card, Holly Elissa Lamaro, Kris Holden-Ried, Kristen Hager
MPAA Rating: PG
Running time: 90 min.

(3/5)

In today’s society, where people think it’s OK to text from inside theatres and find themselves surprised that people take issue with that, or even worse, text while driving or having sex, which, by the way, are all unacceptable, it’s surprising that we haven’t seen a movie based entirely on people managing their romantic relationships via text messaging and social networking. Sure, they’ve come up in movies but never has a movie been based on texting (email and texting are not the same thing) and as much as Textuality wants you to think it’s that movie, it’s not.

The unfortunately titled movie stars model-turned-actor Jason Lewis as Breslin. His last relationship ended badly and he hasn’t been able to shake the fact that his fiancé left him at the altar. He takes some advice from his buddy Michael, a player who has a roster of women who call him up when their relationships are in trouble or over. It’s not complicated and commitment free which he likes. The advice is this: find a couple of women to get you back on track. With technology, this should be easy to manage. So Breslin goes off and finds a couple off ladies to keep himself occupied. And then he has a run in, literally since he runs into her with his car, with Simone played by the lovely Carly Pope, and falls in love.

But Simone isn’t some prize he can add to his roster. She has her own roster of players, a group of guys who all know about each other, which apparently makes it OK (not that she needs an explanation – this is only one of the problems with this script) and besides, she’s hung up on Clive (Eric McCormack playing a dick) a married man she’s been lusting after for what seems like years.

So Breslin and Simone start a friendly relationship that seems to be turning romantic, calling each other because texting is *so* impersonal, meanwhile they’re managing their various other relationships via text messaging and Facebook. Things get a little weird when Breslin and Simone bump into each other at an art opening and their relationship seems to disappear before it even gets going but in the end, it all ends happily. It is a romantic comedy after all.

There’s quite a bit to love about Textuality. There’s a charm to all of these characters; they’re very much the same as the leads from any other romantic comedy but Pope and Lewis have a natural chemistry which comes through on screen. By far the most memorable moment for me was seeing Kris Holden-Ried of “The Tudors” and most recently “Lost Girl” fame, make an appearance as one of Simone’s “exercise” buddies. I was also really taken by Breslin’s buddy Michael played Liam Card who also happens to be the film’s writer. I’m sure that has nothing to do with the fact that he has the best zingers in the movie.

There are a few problems here including some poor product placement (the scene inside a Wind Store is unnecessary), a few jokes that don’t work and perhaps most notably, the painfully cheeky text message bubbles which add little to move the plot and cheapen the production. The most notable fault here is the script which never really kicks into high gear. Many of the jokes don’t really work but to the film’s benefit, it also doesn’t linger on them or try overly hard to sell the mediocre material. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a few laughs just nothing particularly new or memorable.

Even with its problems, I enjoyed Textuality which focuses most of its attention on the leads and their budding relationship. This is typical mediocre romantic comedy material that only works because of the acting which shines through the mediocre material.

Textuality is available on DVD on June 7th.

DVD Extras: Cast interviews.