Long Shot (2019) * *

Directed by: Jonathan Levine

Starring:  Charlize Theron, Seth Rogen, Bob Odenkirk, Alexander Sarsgard, O'Shea Jackson, Jr., June Diane Raphael, Andy Serkis, Ravi Patel

There have been successful politically themed romantic comedies, such as The American President (1995), and then there is Long Shot, a bloated, sparsely funny take on a female running for president.  It runs two hours, and the painfully inexorable story could've been told with thirty minutes shaved from the running time.   There is nothing wrong with a romantic comedy in which opposites attract.  It is the staple of many classic romantic films, but Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron, while appealing, just don't have the chemistry to pull this off.  They fall in love because the screenplay tells them they should.  I just wasn't feeling it.

Charlotte Field (Theron) is the overworked Secretary of State under President Chambers (Odenkirk), a former television actor who announces he won't seek re-election because he wants to star in movies.    Charlotte's name is bandied about as a presidential candidate, and for the most part, her appeal scores are high, except for sense of humor.    Her campaign manager Maggie Milliken (Raphael) wants Charlotte to hire a comic speech writer.    Charlotte finds her guy in Fred Flarsky (Rogen) (there's a Groucho Marx character name if there ever was one), a journalist for a left-wing newspaper.

Charlotte and Fred have a Past, though.   She babysat him when she was a teenager and morphing into the environmentally conscious, politically savvy person she is today.    Fred, who was in love with Charlotte then and probably just as much now, agrees to be her speechwriter, and accompanies her on a multi-nation tour pushing a far-reaching environmental initiative.    Fred and Charlotte hang out together, talk, share their love of early 90's music, and soon find themselves an item, albeit on the down low.    As Maggie coldly points out, Charlotte's approval ratings will drop drastically if she is
found to be canoodling with the likes of the slovenly Fred.

Maggie prefers Charlotte date the more telegenic Canadian Prime Minister (Skarsgard), mostly because that would enhance her standing with the public, but Charlotte can't seem to shake the warm and fuzzy feeling she has developed for Fred.    No Seth Rogen movie would be complete without drug references and a tired, hackneyed scene in which Charlotte lets loose on the town one night by getting high on molly with Fred.    The setup isn't funny and the payoff, in which Charlotte negotiates the release of an American spy while high, isn't anything to write home about either.

There is gross-out humor too, although the scene in which Fred climaxes while masturbating and jizz flies in directions we would never expect, is the movie's funniest.   I'm normally tired of bodily fluids being used for humor, but this was a creative use of said fluids.   Long Shot checks off the plot points you would expect for such a genre.   Sometimes, such plots are comforting and work even though they are as old as movies themselves.    In Long Shot, the plot creeps along without much electricity between the stars and some moments ripe for political satire falling curiously flat.   Rogen is an affable human teddy bear with an affinity for weed.    Theron is sleek, stylish, and with a sense of humor about herself which makes her human.    It is too bad these styles clash in Long Shot and the movie never finds a way to get going.