Along Came Polly is a 2004 American romantic comedy film written and directed by John Hamburg and starring Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston. The story follows Reuben Feffer, a tightly wound New Yorker who finds his life falling apart when he discovers his wife cheating on him with a scuba diver on their honeymoon. He then rebounds and finds himself falling in love with his former classmate Polly Prince as she tries to loosen up his rigid ways, which brings him to question his life and some decisions, and that you can't analyze the safe choice in love all the time.
Plot
Reuben Feffer, a risk analyst for life insurance, is celebrating his honeymoon with newlywed wife, Lisa Kramer, on the island of St. Barts, but catches her having sex with Claude, a French scuba instructor. Returning home to New York alone, he attempts to piece his life back together. Reuben goes to an art gallery with his friend, Sandy Lyle, where he runs into former junior high school classmate Polly Prince. Reuben and Polly begin dating, with her introducing him to activities he once wrote off as "too risky". This included eating at a Moroccan restaurant which ends badly due to Reuben's IBS. Luckily, Polly gives him a second chance where they end up salsa dancing and later enthusiastically having sex together, with Reuben shouting "50" as he ejaculates. The contrast between their two personalities is a source of comedy throughout the film until Lisa returns and tells him she wants to reconcile their relationship. Meanwhile, Sandy, a self centered, former teen idol, is trying to make a comeback by having a documentary filmed about his starring role as Judas in an amateur production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Reuben is torn between the free spirited Polly and the safe and familiar Lisa. To solve this issue, he enters information about Polly and Lisa into a computer insurance program which measures risk. The computer tells him that, despite his numerous blunders with her, Polly is the least risky choice for Reuben. Polly joins Reuben on a sailing trip where he is to inspect Leland Van Lew, a high risk client, but she is offended when she sees his risk analysis of her. She rejects his proposal to move in together, telling him that he would be better off going back to Lisa. Back home, Reuben tries talking to Polly, but to no avail. He eventually invites Lisa to Sandy's opening show, where he learns that Polly is leaving New York in a few hours. After a speech given by his father, Irving, to Sandy about not living in the past, Reuben realizes he wants to be with Polly and not Lisa, and he rushes to her apartment to stop her from leaving. Polly is not convinced she should stay with him, so Reuben eats food off the ground to prove he is capable of taking risks. Reuben and Polly vacation on the same beach where he and Lisa had their honeymoon. Reuben again encounters Claude, but instead of being angry, he thanks Claude before heading into the water with Polly to join Van Lew on his new boat.
The film opened at #1 at the box office in the United States, earning US$27,721,185 in its opening weekend, ending the month long reign of . The film was released in the United Kingdom on February 27, 2004, and topped the country's box office that weekend.
Critical response
Along Came Polly received negative reviews. The film holds an approval rating of 26% at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 159 reviews, with an average rating of 4.78/10. The consensus reads, "Though the supporting actors are funny, Stiller and Aniston don't make a believable couple, and the gross out humor is gratuitous." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score from 1 to 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film a 44 based on 35 critics. The film was a financial success, making $172 million at the box office worldwide off a $42 million budget.
