‘Wanderlust’: A Zany Blast From The Communal Past

In sophisticated comedy, what’s funny is the tension between proper manners and the nasty or sexy subtext. Whereas in low comedy, there are no manners, and the nasty or sexy subtext is right there on the surface.

And then there’s Wanderlust, in which the subtext is blasted through megaphones — the characters say so insanely much you want to scream. The satire is as broad as a battleship and equally bombarding. But it takes guts to do a comedy this big without gross-out slapstick, and the writers and the actors are all in.

Amid the zanies, Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston have more or less the straight roles, but they’re so innocent they’re borderline crazy. They play George and Linda — he’s in finance, she’s an aspiring documentary filmmaker — who sink their money into an itty-bitty Manhattan apartment and go bust.