The Australian romantic comedy “Josh Jarman” is one of those mood enhancer movies. It’s so light and fluffy and just so damn happy-go-lucky that if you’re in a good mood, “Josh Jarman” will boost you into a great mood and may even keep you there for most of the day, but if you’re in a bad mood, “Josh Jarman” may make you want to inflict bad things on your friends and neighbors.
Note to the wise: Do not operate “Josh Jarman” while in a bad mood.
Josh Jarman is a playwright – a struggling playwright at that. He’s fed up with seeing his work play to a handful of people in basement theaters and his hunger for success gnaws at him. Finally, he attracts the attention of a major producer who will put on his play only if he continues to date his daughter and keep her out of trouble. You see, she’s a bit of a hellion and is normally attracted to weirdos, so when straight-laced Josh catches her fancy, Dad couldn’t be any happier. Not a bad deal for Josh, right? His play will become a huge production and he gets to date a hot, wild chick. There’s a problem, however. Josh’s play is good, the producer wants to make it suck. Will Josh sell out, or will he fight to retain his original vision? Welcome to the world of “Josh Jarman”.
Every once in a while I’ll find myself calling a film “cute” here on the site. It’s not a word I use very often, but sometimes it just feels so right. “Josh Jarman” is cute. The movie, not the guy, although I’m sure a lot of people out there would find the guy very cute. “Josh Jarman” is such non-threatening fare, that you’ll actually start thinking that the world around you is alright. And then the movie ends and you go outside to find everything sucks again. But for this 97 minutes, filmmaker Pip Mushin does his best to take us to his laughing place and he succeeds. Aiding him are charming performances from his entire cast. Nothing wrong with that, is there?
Unless you’re in a bad mood of course.
