I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With

I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With

Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Jeff Garlin is James, a frustrated underappreciated Chicago actor who lives with his mother. James wants three things in life: someone to love him, a great part and to lose some weight. Unfortunately, he is 0 for 3. When he bails on Overeaters Anonymous for a trip to the ice cream parlor, he meets Beth who quickly wins his heart, but will this cause James more problems than it solves? Or has he finally found someone to eat cheese with? A brilliant ensemble cast makes this story of romance quite the comedy!

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars I want a better ending
For his directorial debut Jeff Garlin tells an all too familiar story. The tale is of the shy and sensitive loner who is hopeless in his search for love. In Jeff’s case the guy is a fat guy who still lives with his mom. Garlin is doing what many other writer/directors have done before which is writing themselves a sympathetic character and then casting a hot actress to fall for them and adore them. In the film Jeff has a strange hobby of going to the convenience store late at night and stocking up on his favorite junk foods. He lays on the hood of his car wishfully looking up at the stars as he stuffs his face with the fattening foods. He works for a hidden camera show that plays cruel jokes on it’s unsuspecting marks. His heart isn’t in it so one day he quits. In his spare time he performs with the legendary Second City in Chicago. (There are some fun cameos from Second City alums.) He enrolls in a support group for over eaters but he ends up walking out of his first meeting and heads to a nearby ice cream shop. Behind the counter is the beautiful Beth (Sarah Silverman). As a conversation starter she asks him sexually risque questions that catches him off guard. He reads her forwardness as interest on her part. The two start hanging out together after Beth gets off work. On their first date they go for a walk in the park. After their walk they sit on some steps and talk about how lonely they are. There is a couple having a picnic who are feeding cheese to each other. Seeing this Beth tells Jeff that she wants someone to eat cheese with. After this touching moment she invites him to go underwear shopping with her. Silverman is very sexy and funny but her acting isn’t as good as her stand up. This is her first romantic lead in a film as opposed to playing the sassy best friend in so many other movies. She makes the most of the opportunity and captures everything you could see yourself wanting in a woman like this. The romance between the two of them doesn’t unfold as you would expect and it’s disappointing to watch how the Silverman character handles things. I thought this part of the film was too underdeveloped and that things ended abruptly. You don’t much care for the Silverman character by the end either. That isn’t her fault though it’s Garlin’s for not coming up with a better way to end things between Jeff and Beth. Perhaps he chose to go that route so that you would feel more sympathy for his character. Bonnie Hunt gets a lot of laughs as a kindergarten teacher who Garlin meets shortly after ending things with Beth. Garlin is an extremely likable and funny guy and this film has some clever writing on his part. There are some fun performances but just as the premise is familiar the film turns into another wistful story about a romance that didn’t pan out.

4 Stars A subtle American comedy - maybe that’s the problem…..
In this off-kilter movie Jeff Garlin creates something special and different with a great supporting cast.

If you enjoyed movies such as, ‘You, Me and Everyone We Know’, ‘Junebug’, ‘Mind The Gap’ and even, ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ you might want to see, ‘I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With’.

While it’s more of a comedy than any of the afore-mentioned, it shares certain traits - an interest in regular people and their lives, wry observations about the rapport that familial relationships and old friendships are founded on and a quiet feeling of abundance, even when things are going ‘wrong’.

Jeff Garlin’s character, James, has many things happen to him, such as losing multiple jobs in what seems to be the space of a day, but I was stuck how the possibility of money problems or ’survival issues’ never played any role in the story - which in this culture is quite refreshing. It was also interesting that, in the end, James found the answers to his ‘problems’ from within his own life. There were no dramatic additions to his life or convenient solutions. His lack of need to control allowed his life to sort itself out. Like ‘Groundhog Day’ I think this movie would be of interest to psychologists.

There were many times while watching that I laughed out loud. Mr. Garlin is excellent - I don’t know if much acting was required and it doesn’t matter because he’s so likable being himself. He’s supported by an equally competent cast, some familiar some not. The actress who plays his mom is particularly funny - but again, in an understated way.

Having read other reviews here I was frankly surprised at the reaction, or lack of, to this movie. All I can assume is that many people expected Mr. Garlin to appear in something exactly like ‘Curb You Enthusiasm’ or have seen ‘The Dark Knight’ too many times. It does have the subtle, observational wit of ‘Curb’ but not the outrageous situations and certainly not the high volume dialog.

Finally, I’d like to thank the reviewers who panned this movie, they’ve enabled me to buy the DVD in ‘like new’ condition for under $5.00.

3 Stars quirky, but…
I too have to agree with the reviewer who points out how cute Sarah Silverman is (admittedly a strong point that lead me to get the movie) - - in addition, how similar Jeff Garlin looks to George Wendt (not a factor in renting the movie… However, his acting in CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM was.) Ergo… I got the film…

Although not well directed, the movie does have that Larry David/CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM style of quirky observational humor… and the film has a charm… All in all, a nice film to watch one time, though not sure I’d want to see it over and over - - My guess is that had Garlin stuck to writing and acting and the script and cast were virtually the same, but a Christopher Guest or Woody Allenesque director were pulled in, it really would have worked…

As for the story, its about an aspiring actor/compulsive overeater who at age 39 still live with his mother…

His life is falling apart, until he meets Beth (Silverman’s character)… a cheerfully yet somewhat mentally ill/sexually uninhibited chubby chaser who work’s at her sister’s ice cream parlor. The film unfolds at its own pace, but is held together by Garlin, Silverman and company… (Most interestingly, Garlin pretty much plays a character similar to the one in CURB, and Silverman is definitely herself, so fans of both will enjoy, though sometimes its a bit awkward.)

In conclusion… quite a few laugh out loud scenes, but don’t expect to be blown away…

Includes a cameo by Amy Sedaris as well as many other recognizable faces.

4 Stars “Who Cut The Cheese?”
Or like the French (and some ugly Americans like me) say, “Qui couper le frommage?”

OK, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I’ll admit I enjoyed “I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With.”

“Cheese” communicates in a very innocent, direct and quirky method, that is entirely endearing. Its difficult not to develop some affection for Jeff Garlin. This movie is essentially a “stream of experience” about Jeff’s life as an nice, aimless, affable, funny, fat jewish guy.

Sarah Silverman delivers a performance that could (or will) be right out of “The Sarah Silverman Program.” Bonnie Hunt is wonderful as the school teacher, and Dan Castellaneta is great as the store owner.

I’m going to watch it again to make sure I don’t miss any of the great humor, like when the homeless guy refuses to wear the pirate costume saying, “I’m a homeless guy. All I have left is my dignity.”

This would have been five stars, but as the movie begins to build toward what I thought might be the most important scenes, it suddenly ends. Perhaps demonstrating my interest in the film, I felt ripped-off, like someone had just deleted a huge chunk somewhere in the second half of the DVD. The last scene, which was supposed to be very meaningful, was probably set up by the missing material, so it just seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Its as if the producer of the movie, like Jeff Garlin’s character, full of talented self-doubt, got off to a great start but suddenly loses his nerve just before closing the deal with the audience.

Still, you can’t discount the good intentions and honesty of this little film. Basically, Jeff is someone I’d like to meet, I think he’d be a lot of fun.

Oh well. I’d be inclined to try a Jeff Garlin production again, hoping for some of the same quirky honesty.

1 Star KEPT WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN
maybe it was too subtle for me, but nothing happened. it was also depressing. not what I’d expected. Curb Your Enthusiasm is much more entertaining.

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