“Yeah.”

From The Stand In.

For years, Candy Black (Drew Barrymore) has been Hollywood’s comedy queen with her countless movies and frequent use of physical comedy, but through the years, she has become a bitter alcoholic and drug addict.  While her agent, Louis (T. J. Miller), tries to keep her under control with little success, the only one able to get Candy to show up on set is her faithful stand in, Paula (also Drew Barrymore).  However, a mishap on set leads to Candy going on a screaming rant against the director (Holland Taylor), accidentally injuring her costar (Ellie Kemper), and falling hard from grace.  A few years later, Candy hasn’t left her mansion for ages and has turned her attention instead to woodworking, but she still finds herself in some legal trouble and ordered to attend rehab.  Over the past year, Candy has anonymously befriended fellow woodworker Steve (Michael Zegen) online and is ready to finally meet him in person, so Candy reaches out to Paula, hiring her to take her place at rehab in exchange for more stand in work afterwards.  While pretending to be Candy at rehab, Paula realizes that she is a great Candy, especially when Candy decides to leave her lucrative acting career and break the promise she made Paula.  Through a series of events, Paula pretends to be Steve to end the relationship with Candy, starts dating the attractive Steve herself, sets off on an apology tour, gets a sponsorship (with Charlie Barnett), and takes over every aspect of Candy’s life.  Kicked out of her home and life, Candy finds herself alone, but also free for the first time in decades and able to decide how she wants to move forward.

While intended to be a full-on comedy, the most that this film manages is to be a melancholic comedy.  Barrymore does well to bring two unique and distinguishable characters to life, even as one character pretends to be the other. The Stand In features some fun moments, but overall, the attitude that the film creates will make this movie a hit only with die-hard fans of the lead actress.

| Rated: R| Running Time: 101 minutes |Genre: comedy/drama |

||Family Viewing||Cursing: 8* of 10|Nudity: 0 of 10|Sexuality: 0 of 10|Gore: 1 of 10

|AVAILABLE FOR HOME VIEWING|