Tag | Little White Lies

Tag

29 Jun 2018 / Released: 29 Jun 2018

Words by Finley Crebolder

Directed by Jeff Tomsic

Starring Ed Helms, Jake Johnson, and Jeremy Renner

Three men stand on stairs, wearing casual clothing. One man in a blue shirt, one in a black jacket, and one with a beard.
Three men stand on stairs, wearing casual clothing. One man in a blue shirt, one in a black jacket, and one with a beard.
3

Anticipation.

An intriguing premise for a film, based on an absurd true story.

3

Enjoyment.

An inconsistently funny but largely enjoyable ride.

3

In Retrospect.

Has plenty of heart and soul, but sometimes falls flat.

Sil­ly school­yard antics trip over into adult­hood in this fit­ful­ly enter­tain­ing com­e­dy of male friendship.

Do you remem­ber when you and your friends decid­ed to stop muck­ing about in the play­ground? Maybe it was at the end of school, after being mocked by the old­er kids. Or maybe, just maybe, you nev­er stopped. This was the case for a group of friends who played a game of tag’ that last­ed for over 20 years. First made famous by a 2013 Wall Street Jour­nal arti­cle, writ­ten by a jour­nal­ist who had spent time with the friends, it seemed inevitable that this sil­ly true sto­ry would be picked up by Hollywood.

With an absurd con­cept to work around, and a cast includ­ing Ed Helms, Jere­my Ren­ner and Jon Hamm, Jeff Tomsic’s Tag makes for a fun and often heart­felt, if some­what incon­sis­tent, ride. The film focus­es on the group’s last attempt to tag Jer­ry (Ren­ner), the only remain­ing unde­feat­ed play­er. The quest brings the friends back to their Wash­ing­ton home­town, Spokane, and their target’s own wed­ding, an event they see as a gold­en oppor­tu­ni­ty to final­ly get Jer­ry. Chaos ensues over the next few weeks, with golf bug­gy chas­es, home inva­sions, the usual.

This may seem extreme for a game of tag, but the absurd open­ing scene imme­di­ate­ly makes it clear just how far these friends will go. It sees Hogan (Helms), a man with a pHD, hap­pi­ly take a full-time job as a jan­i­tor, pure­ly to get access to the build­ing in which Calla­han (Hamm) works. This sort of ludi­crous humour is what the film relies on, but it some­times, much like mid­dle-aged men play­ing an extreme game of tag, falls flat on its face.

Nev­er­the­less, when this hap­pens, it’s through no fault of the cast. The more tra­di­tion­al­ly comedic actors (Helms, Jake John­son and Han­ni­bal Buress) bring most of the laughs, while Ren­ner and Hamm also show their fun­ny side, although the for­mer does still large­ly inhab­it his usu­al all-action persona.

Per­haps sur­pris­ing­ly for a film that’s mar­ket­ed as an all-out com­e­dy, it excels when mov­ing away from the laughs. When focus­ing on the endur­ing bond between the group, it suc­cess­ful­ly brings a lot of heart and soul, and a deep­er mean­ing to a game of tag that you may not think pos­si­ble. Rather than just being a sto­ry about grown men chas­ing each oth­er, it is instead a sto­ry of friend­ship, and how, by hold­ing on to their youth for one month each year, this friend­ship has last­ed through­out their lives.

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