You can’t be with the one you love; text messages and phone calls don’t make up for the loss of physical intimacy, and thousands of miles and multiple time zones often doom the relationship to failure. And it happens to movie stars and likable actors, too! Judd Apatow has shown us that relationship-comedies – which is a highfalutin way of saying romantic-comedies – can be a place for both thoughtful love stories and toilet-bowl humor. For all we know, they might be dating today. But this empty, immature romantic comedy ultimately feels as if it’s filled with all the hot air that separates New York and San Francisco , yet still manages to be a suffocating bore. The talent is certainly there. He’s an up-and-coming scout for a record label, she’s a 31-year-old Stanford University student interning at a newspaper, and soon these skittish motormouths are making all of Gotham their playground. But writer Geoff LaTulippe forgot to give them — and their surrounding friends and family — anything interesting or clever to say, other than sexual innuendos and quips about bodily functions. Thus, a predicament for the ages: Can their love survive a cross-country relationship? (Oh my.) Right out of the gate, director Nanette Burstein unleashes a full arsenal of rom-com cliches, including the obligatory falling-in-love montage. While it is true the newspaper industry has been in a brutal downward spiral since then, it seems a stretch to have a 35-year-old actress still playing someone trying to get her break as a reporter. Of course, that’s easier said than done.

One of the things I liked best about the film is how it is grounded in the grim economics of the newspaper and recording industries.

High airfares keep visits to once every four months, phone sex proves unsatisfying, they waste Skype -cam time fawning over baby panda videos, and there are only so many emoticons that can accompany texts saying “LUV U!” Meanwhile, Erin’s protective sister (an underused Christina Applegate ) worries this relationship will distract Erin, like an earlier one that resulted in her “derailed time line.” Nonetheless, the two crazy kids try to make it work despite the hurdles.

Barrymore plays Erin, a 31-year-old trying to get her “time line” back on track as an intern at the New York Sentinel after putting her career ambitions on hold to devote herself to a relationship that then crashed and burned. Though anything that begins with the squirrely Long making ridiculous loverman moves has nowhere to go but up, “Going the Distance” never gains speed. She’s earnest and sincere, yet appears to be waiting for someone to hand her a story, all fleshed out and ready to be typed up. “I’m 31,” she tells a co-worker, her tone rich with disgust as she heads out of the newsroom. The movie wants to be a serio-comic look at the often competing forces between work and love. The film has filled smaller roles with an assembly of notable comedians. Apparently, Day did research for his role at a hospital for the insane. He isn’t even afraid to make fun of this film’s target audience.

Perhaps this is where director Nanette Burstein’s background making such documentary films as 2008′s American Teen and 1999′s On the Ropes bleeds through. They inhabit hilarious scenes where the duo ruminate about nothing at all. Charlie Day contributes some hilarious bits of business as Garrett’s eavesdropping roommate, while Jim Gaffigan gets to deliver the funniest line in the movie, as Erin’s brother-in-law. Christina Applegate appears as Erin’s sister, a stuffy clean freak with a foul mouth.

For all we know, they might be dating today. Or maybe they’ll be dating again tomorrow ? the two refuse to discuss their relationship in the media. Traditionally, Labor Day marks not only the end of summer, but the last gasp for films that movie studios feel might have a three-day window and nothing more. F irst, let me say how much I hate the title “Going the Distance.” In the age of “Superbad” and “Knocked Up,” I believe this R-rated comedy title is wussified. But however mysterious their on-again, off-again coupledom is in real life, their chemistry on-screen in the raunchy but charming Going the Distance is credible, intimate and more appealing than 90% of the romantic pairings in American movies these days. Along with their other best friend, Dan (Charlie Day), they spend a lot of time in a generic New York City bar with a videogame, the kind that keeps track of high scorers. Whether it fits or not. Second, let me say that I was pleasantly surprised. If Justin Long or Drew Barrymore were to recreate the speech it would go something like “relationships are relationships.” And they are. They drink beer, affirm their buddydom, and lament their lack of girlfriends. Going in I expected another Drew Barrymore romantic comedy along the lines of “Fever Pitch” (2005), in this case featuring on-again, off-again boyfriend, actor and Apple pitchman Justin Long. When we meet her, Erin is a summer intern at the fictional New York Sentinel , dispirited after failing to capture the attention of her distracted, downtrodden editor (the excellent Matt Servitto). As she prepares to return to California , they impulsively decide at the airport to update their boyfriend-girlfriend status to long distance and exclusive.

Of course, that’s easier said than done. Garrett has just been dumped again and again the guys are offering their advice: he needs to commit. Erin (Barrymore) is a budding journalist who wants a newspaper job. One of the things I liked best about the film is how it is grounded in the grim economics of the newspaper and recording industries. High airfares keep visits to once every four months, phone sex proves unsatisfying, they waste Skype -cam time fawning over baby panda videos, and there are only so many emoticons that can accompany texts saying “LUV U!” Meanwhile, Erin’s protective sister (an underused Christina Applegate ) worries this relationship will distract Erin, like an earlier one that resulted in her “derailed time line.” Nonetheless, the two crazy kids try to make it work despite the hurdles. Never mind that they’re all pretty boorish and juvenile and no one in her right mind would commit to any one of them. The comic interplay between the three men is of mixed quality. The clean-shaven one with a job (A&R at a small record label that sends him to sign wannabe Jonas-Brothers acts), Garrett is the designated least offensive buddy (i.e., the male romantic lead), so when he heads off to play the videogame, you know exactly what will happen: he’ll meet the female romantic lead. It’s also packed with anachronistic references (audio cassettes, “Centipede” video games, countless “Top Gun” shout-outs - is the writer sneaking in a pitch for ” The Wedding Singer 2″?) and, as this genre now requires, a brigade of quirky sidekicks.

But a problem looms, Barrymore’s New York City newspaper internship is up at the end of summer, and she’s headed back to San Diego. But six weeks later she must return to California to finish her graduate studies. She’s an awesome videogame player, a Stanford journalism student in town for a summer internship. She laughs heartily when Dan blasts Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” through the wall to set the stage for their tryst. See the 100 best movies of all time.

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Judd Apatow has shown us that relationship-comedies – which is a highfalutin way of saying romantic-comedies – can be a place for both thoughtful love stories and toilet-bowl humor.

Drew Barrymore is her congenial self as she plays Erin, a 31-year-old newspaper intern in New York who’s fallen for Justin Long’s geek-stud Garrett. F irst, let me say how much I hate the title “Going the Distance.” In the age of “Superbad” and “Knocked Up,” I believe this R-rated comedy title is wussified. Thus, a predicament for the ages: Can their love survive a cross-country relationship? (Oh my.) Right out of the gate, director Nanette Burstein unleashes a full arsenal of rom-com cliches, including the obligatory falling-in-love montage. Second, let me say that I was pleasantly surprised. The calculated sexual raunch (mostly verbal) in “Going the Distance” impedes on its hard-edged, soft-center charm, and it may be enough to throw various audience segments straight out of the thing.

The “Long” in long distance just happens to be Justin Long. The movie could have been relevant and timely – the economy stinks and is forcing young people to take jobs they don’t like in places they really don’t want to work. But screenwriter Geoff LaTulippe’s story of a recession-era long-distance relationship and its attendant hurdles takes its characters seriously. But writer Geoff LaTulippe forgot to give them — and their surrounding friends and family — anything interesting or clever to say, other than sexual innuendos and quips about bodily functions. Drew Barrymore and Justin Long had a lot of practice kissing each other before cameras rolled on “Going the Distance.” LOS ANGELES — Drew Barrymore and Justin Long might or might not still be dating, but chemistry was not an issue when the crossed stars decided it was worth ” Going the Distance .” As Barrymore said during a press day in Los Angeles, it wasn’t like kissing a brick, and it was just one of a litany of elements that the comedy got right where so many have gone wrong. Charlie Day (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) and Jason Sudeikis (“Saturday Night Live”) play Garrett’s perpetual bachelor buddies. I speak of Justin Long , the rich man’s Bob Denver . More Info MOVIE REVIEWPage 3D “I just was lucky, for me, because he’s a good kisser,” she said.

They inhabit hilarious scenes where the duo ruminate about nothing at all. Barrymore plays Erin, a 31-year-old trying to get her “time line” back on track as an intern at the New York Sentinel after putting her career ambitions on hold to devote herself to a relationship that then crashed and burned. There’s a comedy there, surely, but “Going the Distance” does not look for jokes in the reality of the character’s lives. This is where their long-distance travails begin. She is basically Xeroxed here with Christina Applegate providing a wagging finger to Barrymore’s bad choices. Barrymore is always charming and watchable. I think you just hope that you’re invested in the scene. Neither is in the position, careerwise, to make compromises for the sake of their romance.

“Going the Distance” tries its hardest to blend Apatow’s bromance humor with the rom-com’s sappy conventionalism. It’s just that the laughs have an “insert gag here” feel, aimed at capturing some other movie’s commercial appeal. And people have different ways of kissing, which sometimes can be jarringly uncomfortable. There?s his work, Applegate?s and a quite funny sex scene on a table ? and that?s about it.

When Long goes to the tanning booth, it’s hard to keep from groaning, given how many rom-coms feel the need to insert a tanning casualty scene. “I just want to reiterate that.” But the team effort behind “Going the Distance” seemed aimed at not just making a kiss look good but at making a romantic comedy that avoided all the overused conventions of its genre. Starring: Drew Barrymore, Justin Long, Christina Applegate, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis. Rated R for sexual content including dialogue, language throughout, some drug use and brief nudity.

F irst, let me say how much I hate the title “Going the Distance.” In the age of “Superbad” and “Knocked Up,” I believe this R-rated comedy title is wussified. Second, let me say that I was pleasantly surprised. Going in I expected another Drew Barrymore romantic comedy along the lines of “Fever Pitch” (2005), in this case featuring on-again, off-again boyfriend, actor and Apple pitchman Justin Long. But screenwriter Geoff LaTulippe’s story of a recession-era long-distance relationship and its attendant hurdles takes its characters seriously. Drew Barrymore and Justin Long had a lot of practice kissing each other before cameras rolled on “Going the Distance.” LOS ANGELES — Drew Barrymore and Justin Long might or might not still be dating, but chemistry was not an issue when the crossed stars decided it was worth ” Going the Distance .” As Barrymore said during a press day in Los Angeles, it wasn’t like kissing a brick, and it was just one of a litany of elements that the comedy got right where so many have gone wrong. They’re a modern-day Hepburn and Grant. I speak of Justin Long , the rich man’s Bob Denver . Their pop-culture references to that film, The Shawshank Redemption and Moesha feel dated. They are attracted to each other; they’d have to be, to overlook the fact that they both work at jobs that no longer exist. Thank God.’ It’s the worst when you’re kissing someone who’s not a good kisser, and you’re trying to make it look good, and you feel like you’re just working on your own. This is where their long-distance travails begin. There’s a tenderness that softens even the crudest moments. “It was just so easy to do, and we were so comfortable.

Much is made of the couple’s respective passions for their chosen fields, both of which are undergoing massive institutional changes. Since the interview with her takes place late in the day, the subject of spirituality seems a long cry from the new movie that she’s promoting, “Going the Distance,” which opens today. I think you just hope that you’re invested in the scene. Perhaps this is where director Nanette Burstein’s background making such documentary films as 2008′s American Teen and 1999′s On the Ropes bleeds through. But, then again, maybe not. He’s on the rebound, having just broken up with someone that night. They are just so far away from each other! That takes a little faith. There can be very little movement involved, and then a quick, sudden movement from a tongue that you didn’t expect. As it is, this uneven movie is more a compilation of contemporary images and concerns peppered with derivative raucous scenarios, à la Judd Apatow movies, than an involving romantic comedy. It’s an R-rated romantic comedy with an edge – more along the lines of Judd Apatow’s “Knocked Up” – so throughout the day people have been asking her about “all kinds of raunchy stuff,” Barrymore says.

“She’s a great kisser, too,” he added. This one is no exception. I could have done without the canned, mixtape music montages, featuring Cat Power, the Cure, the Eels, the Replacements, the Pretenders and Boxer Rebellion.

At AMC Loews Boston Common, Regal Fenway Stadium and suburban theaters. (“Going the Distance ” contains nudity, in the form of Long’s bare butt, profanity and crass humor.)

“I went up to him and said, ‘I just talked about how hot you are in your underwear,’ ” she recalls with a laugh. The Orlando Sentinel. There’s an unexpected wistfulness, a bittersweet undercurrent to “Going the Distance” that could not have been in the script. Both aged about 30, they hook up at a bar in New York and find that they have much in common, including a fondness for soft drugs, dumb jokes and vintage arcade games. It was just one of those scenes where you have to go for it, not knowing whether it’s going to work. And once Erin returns to the Bay Area from NYC, the movie pingpongs between the two places, which grows tiresome. But when summer ends, Erin has to return to San Francisco in search of a real job. But you never compromise along the way.” All this talk of “never compromising” might sound strange coming from an actress best known for romantic comedies. Going the Distance has a good, simple premise and a well chosen support cast, including Christina Applegate as Erin’s sister. That may explain why it’s been dumped on Labor Day weekend. Such a fan in fact that when she ran into Wahlberg at an awards show soon after, she found herself gushing about how he inspired her phone sex scene. “Oh my God, I did tell him about all that. It’s due out Friday.

But that baggage tends to give this R-rated romance resonance. It’s formulaic and loses its mushy/silly momentum at about the one-hour mark. Erin and Garrett meet over a vintage video game, get stoned, have sex and become a couple. In other words, Barrymore’s come a long way since “Ever After” and “Never Been Kissed.” “When I first cast Drew, she had come off a string of movies where she was, basically, playing America’s Sweetheart,” says “Going the Distance” director Nanette Burstein. “But then I saw ‘Grey Gardens’ and I was blown away. “In the past, a number of Drew’s romantic comedies have had a fairy tale-like quality to them, but this movie is much more realistic and raunchy, more like a Judd Apatow movie. While Garrett and Erin both have their flaws, neither is presented as a neurotic basket case who must radically transform in order to be worthy of love. Texting only goes so far; what about physical contact? Temptations are tossed in, in the form of flirty, understanding co-workers of the opposite sex. Barrymore and Long had dated a few years ago, split up and reunited just before the cameras rolled. “You are behind in your life,” her irritable sister (Christina Applegate, terrific) reminds her. But the movies warmth and good sense go out the window when the filmmakers aim for broad comedy.

Still, despite the movies flaws, its hard to give up on it and just throw the towel in. And, over many drinks and their variation of Truth or Dare, they connect. But like a bad relationship, the movie will continually let you down.