VividSimon Simply Perfect

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Steve Pulaski I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With reminds me a little bit of World's Greatest Dad. It's marketed as a comedy, when really it's a drama. The front cover of the film is quoted in being "Hilarious" when it's anything but. It's a melodrama that is only chuckle inducing rather than constant hilarity as one may assume. Personally, I find nothing funny about a down-on-your-luck, heavy set man going through almost a midlife crisis. I don't find the humor in that.Jeff Garlin stars as James, an obese man who's luck has seemed to be at a halt. He works at Second City, an improvising show in Chicago, and he loses his job, lives with his mother, his girlfriend leaves him, and he sneaks out of his Overeaters Anonymous seminar to go to an ice cream parlor. He meets a plucky and younger woman named Beth (Silverman). Beth gives him an ice cream snack she made as practice and even questions James if he's ever done anything kinky.James and Beth hang out the next day and it's beginning to be noticeable that both are getting attracted to one another. James continues to go on with his every day life which involves a goofy show or two, and hanging out with his friends. My favorite, the clerk played by Dan Castellaneta.The movie tends to hit starts and stops, and sometimes seems as if it is not progressing at all. It's short and sweet, but Garlin works through the film softly and calmly. He doesn't rely on regular humor most romantic comedies do and it certainly isn't formulaic. Its got the humor of Larry David's show Curb Your Enthusiasm, which Jeff also stars in.Shot in eighteen years, but spread over the course of almost two years, I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With is a strange, strange little film with some off the wall humor and some very well crafted characters. I enjoyed Garlin's sweet and simple attitude, Silverman's presence, and its far from cliché ending. This isn't the most eventful rom-com, but it's one that shows love in a different light. With IFC Films on the cover, it is surely far from the Hollywood light.Starring: Jeff Garlin, Sarah Silverman, Bonnie Hunt, Dan Castellaneta. Directed by: Jeff Garlin.

Bob Stein, VisiBone The dialog has that rare combination of smart, quirky, and subtle that is such a thirst-quencher for the intellectual. This is the thinking man's Marty. No, I had never heard of it either, but it might do you well to get a little familiar with the 1955 movie with Ernest Borgnine before watching this one, e.g. the excerpts on YouTube. And not only because the plot talks about a remake.Jeff Garlin, charming, never maudlin.Sarah Silverman is her thoroughly attractive self. As the lead says, what can he do, he likes them young and insane. When she's uncomfortably over-the-top, it's the character's fault, not the actor's.Bonnie Hunt, what can I say, she is never less than a treat with a cherry on top.The main thing I'd add to the excellent reviews by Ed Uyeshima and CountryJim: pay close attention. The last three minutes say an awful lot. The big twist in the middle left me feeling abandoned. The denouement at the end tied me back in.

weiler97 Great ensemble cast but unfortunately a bunch of undeveloped ideas make the film drag. One feels not fulfilled at the end after waiting for some kind of conclusion, closure, or at least an ironic twist.It had that familiar "Curb" feel without dare I say it, Larry as the annoying polar opposite. The music was there, the 'show about nothing' scenes pop up, but without any common thread or suspense - it falters as a solo project that ran out of budget.Spoilers: The movie title speaks about cheese but she prefers the rice pudding. Is cheese a better selling title than rice pudding? He prefers just any junk food, regardless of the sell by date. Maybe I want someone to eat 'cheese-dogs' or ice cream in a pirate suit would have at least tied some scenes together.Marty: this is just not funny and overdone. People just don't care about a 'show' within a show. A coffee book table about coffee books was funnier.Unless you are big fans of the cast, save your time and eat some cheese. It doesn't even have to be with anyone.

Ed Uyeshima Any movie that offers Bonnie Hunt, Sarah Silverman and Amy Sedaris in the supporting cast has to be well worth watching, and comic actor Jeff Garlin takes advantage of the terrific talent he recruited for his 2007 directorial debut, a sad-sack comedy about an overweight man who feels out of step with the world around him. Familiar as Larry David's manager Jeff on "Curb Your Enthusiasm", Garlin plays James, a still-struggling, 39-year old Chicago actor who still lives with his widowed mother. His self-esteem is so low that he can't meet women, but it's the comical way he views his single status that makes his dilemma involving. If the storyline sounds a bit familiar, that's because the film is partially a tribute to the 1955 Ernest Borgnine classic, "Marty", about a lonely Bronx butcher living with his meddlesome mother. In fact, Garlin uses "Marty" as the play which James is desperate to do since he is so empathetic to the character's situation.Naturally there is a love story of sorts in this new millennium version, and Silverman plays Beth, an off-kilter, sexually voracious ice cream parlor server who takes him on an underwear shopping spree. Their best scene together is in his favorite convenience store where they improvise different characters in different aisles. Hunt plays a lonely elementary school teacher who shares a passion with James for jazz musician Ben Webster. They meet accidentally in a record store and then again at a career day at her school where he hilariously exposes his sexual neuroses in front of a classroom of first-graders, including his best friend Luca's pert daughter Penelope (played by Dakota Fanning's look-alike baby sister Elle). In a wedged-in cameo and looking quite a bit like Jerri Blank, Sedaris plays the school's counselor who speaks to James after his inappropriate monologue. David Pasquesi plays Luca, a retirement home manager, and his scenes with Garlin have an easy rapport that makes their friendship easy to believe. Almost stealing the movie is character actress Mina Kolb, who plays James' pixilated mother with pluck and heart.There are also unexpected cameos from teen idol Aaron Carter and Gina Gershon (don't ask…but the set-up is funny), as well as sharply played bits by director Paul Mazursky (as the snaky director of a candid-camera-type show, "Smear Job"), Tim Kazurinsky (as the unsuspecting victim of that show) and Dan Castellaneta (as the tough-love convenience store owner). With his rueful bouts of insecurity and self-loathing, Garlin's comic sensibilities resemble those of Albert Brooks, and the casual dialogue at its best reminds me of "Modern Romance" and "Defending Your Life". The one persistent problem I had with the film is pacing as some scenes dragged out longer than necessary. The problem is more evident in the first half when Garlin is trying to establish the right tempo, and the lack of real conflict adds to the sluggishness. Regardless, what he does well is capture that gnawing sense of desperation one feels upon the revelation that life is not what it is supposed to be, that a significant other may be out of reach, and that a steady diet of junk food eaten on a car hood is the only sure thing when it comes to gratification.