This review was originally published on November 5, 2009 as an AFI Fest film festival review.

Rating: 8/10

Writers: Kyle Patrick Alvarez (screenplay), Davy Rothbart (story)
Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez
Cast: Brian Geraghty, Kel O'Neill, Marguerite Moreau

No, my precious GATWers, you are not going crazy. There exists, in our Whale-centric universe, another EASIER WITH PRACTICE festival review, written by our beloved James Wallace from this year's CineVegas. But the film moved James so much that I could not pass up a chance to take it in for myself at AFI Fest, and then (of course) I couldn't stop myself from writing a review.

EASIER WITH PRACTICE’s plot boils down to something deceptively simple, a punchline to a joke that sucks out what makes it so special – it is a film filled with heart and substance. Davy (Brian Geraghty) is a struggling writer on the road for a two-man book tour – he does readings at tiny little bookstores across the country, while his brother Sean tags along to collect sales proceeds and various women. One night, while Davy is alone in a crappy motel room, the phone rings. He picks it up. On the other end of the line is Nicole, a woman he has never met and has no attachments to. She, of course, asks him what he is wearing. And while a lot of the things you may suspect happen do indeed happen in EASIER WITH PRACTICE, a lot of things you might not see coming happen, too.

In the Q&A after the screening, Alvarez and Geraghty discussed the process of making their Davy come alive. For them, Davy is the sort of guy whose entire life is lived in the awkward moments – something like those weird pauses between hugging someone hello or just shaking their hand, but all the time. Connections don’t come easily to him, so the formation of any kind of relationship is a big deal for Davy. He knows what he is supposed to do and how he is supposed to do it and how he is supposed to feel, but there is a wall around all those things in Davy, and that is the wall that Nicole gradually knocks down.

As the film progresses, Davy and Sean’s road trip ends and Davy is thrust back into his humdrum real world life. It’s no surprise that the best and most important part of that life are Davy’s conversations with Nicole. But what Davy and Nicole have is rife with all sorts of problems (even beyond the very obvious) – Nicole has a boyfriend, Nicole won’t give Davy her phone number, Nicole has to initiate all contact. And, as Nicole has cracked open Davy, an odd thing happens – Davy becomes more open to other, real-life relationships. But the lingering feelings Davy harbors for Nicole make it impossible for him to fully open himself to other people and, inevitably, Davy has to make peace with who Nicole is, before he can have the hope to do the same with himself.

Despite the fact that EASIER WITH PRACTICE tells a story that (I’m just guessing here, stop me if I’m wrong) doesn’t happen to most people, it is carried out with such sensitivity and realism that it’s instantly relatable to anyone who has ever fallen into that tenuous substance known as love. There are certain scenes so gut-wrenchingly easy to identify with in the film that I suspect they’ll long stick with EASIER’s audience. In particular, the scene in which Davy is closer to meeting Nicole in person than he has ever been filled me with such a nervous anticipation that it could best be described as “a flock of butterflies flapping around my stomach, which has then been pulled into one vicious knot.” It’s not just any movie that can make you feel that, it’s not just a typical story that can move you in that way.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOsbJsqTZjM[/youtube]