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The Go-Getter (film)
Encyclopedia
The Go-Getter is a 2007 American independent
road movie
directed and written by Martin Hynes
. The film stars Lou Taylor Pucci
, Zooey Deschanel
, and Jena Malone
. In the film, 19-year-old Mercer (Pucci) steals a stranger's car to embark on a road trip to find his estranged brother and tell him that their mother has died. He communicates with the car's owner, Kate (Deschanel), via her cell phone while he travels.
The story was based partially on Hynes's own experiences. After his mother died, and his marriage ended, he took a road trip
of his own and wrote "different things," some of which came together in the script for The Go-Getter. Before production began, Hynes and three other crew members traveled to almost every location visited in the film to perform a test shoot, trying various filming styles and techniques. Filming took place between October and November 2005 in Oregon
, Nevada
, California
, and Mexico
. Singer and guitarist M. Ward
provided most of the music for the film, complemented by songs from The Black Keys
, Elliott Smith
, The Replacements, and Animal Collective
.
The Go-Getter debuted on January 22, 2007 at the Sundance Film Festival
and was given a limited theatrical release
on June 6, 2008 by Peace Arch Entertainment. Its run lasted just three days, and it grossed only US$
11,931. Critics were divided in reaction to the film; some praised the performances, the dialogue and the cinematography, while others thought it was unoriginal, forgettable, and poorly acted.
) steals a Volvo
station wagon from a car wash, and leaves Eugene, Oregon
to find his estranged half-brother Arlen, who is unaware that their mother has recently died. Soon after leaving, a cell phone in the car rings, and Mercer finds himself talking to the owner of the car, Kate (Zooey Deschanel
), who lends him her car on the condition that he calls regularly to describe his trip to her.
Mercer travels to a bohemian pottery-making commune in Shelter Cove, California
where Arlen once lived, but learns that he moved to Reno, Nevada
. He passes through Fallon, Nevada
to meet up with the seductive Joely (Jena Malone
), his middle school crush. In Reno, they take ecstasy and almost have sex before Mercer resumes his search for Arlen. Later he finds himself on the set of a pornographic film, where the director (Julio Oscar Mechoso
) tells him that Arlen left to work at a pet store in Sacramento, California
. Joely asks Mercer if he can drive her cousin Buddy (Colin Fickes
) and his friend Rid (William Lee Scott
) to Mojave, California
, where they are building their own car. While driving, Mercer finds Kate's YMCA
card in the trunk of her car and, now knowing what she looks like, describes a dream to her in which he, Joely, and Kate are dancing in a re-enactment of Bande à parts dance sequence. Not wanting to get sidetracked, he tries to leave the others behind in a motel room, but when Buddy threatens to steal the car, Mercer tells him that the car belongs to his girlfriend, and Buddy, Rid, and Joely leave without Mercer in Kate's car. He hitchhikes to Mojave and finds the salvage yard where Buddy and Rid are working, and retrieves the car.
Mercer talks to Kate while driving, imagining her sitting in the back seat of the car, but she hangs up in jealousy when he mentions Joely for the first time. He arrives in Sacramento and finds the pet store where Arlen worked. The owner (Maura Tierney
) asks Mercer to sing in her children's band, for which she plays as part of her probation. When he returns to the car, he finds somebody trying to break into it, only to discover that it is Kate. They spend the night at a hotel, but he leaves without her the next morning and catches a train to Los Angeles, California
. With the help of a translator, he phones Arlen's last residence and learns from a Hispanic woman that Arlen is working at a hotel in Ensenada, Mexico. Mercer finally meets Arlen (Jsu Garcia
) at the hotel in Ensenada, but Arlen assumes Mercer is just there for money. Enraged, Mercer tackles his brother to the ground and gets kicked off the premises. Kate later finds a bloody Mercer sitting on the side of a road and takes him to a hotel. She tells him that she let him take her car because she was attracted to him, and they have sex. The next day Mercer meets with Arlen again, more amicably, and tells him that he and Kate are driving to Louisiana
to spread his mother's ashes.
Writer-director Martin Hynes
referred to the film as "very uncomfortably autobiographical". He had learned that his mother was diagnosed with cancer when making his 1999 film The Big Split
. His marriage ended soon after his mother died, which Hynes saw as "a huge amount of loss". After deciding that "I have to do less," he took a road trip, spending much of his time writing as he traveled. He wrote "really different things", some of which were pieced together and led to his script for The Go-Getter, which he wrote in 2004. Within six months of the script's completion, producer Lucy Barzun Donnelly had raised the entire budget of the film without any actors attached at the time.
Barzun Donnelly recommended to Hynes that he consider Lou Taylor Pucci
for the lead role of Mercer, believing that he was "perfect". Hynes watched Pucci's 2005 film Thumbsucker
and thought that "We'd be so lucky to have him." He contacted Pucci about the role but was leaving for Norway
in less than a week to attend a friend's wedding and wanted to meet with him before leaving. Pucci was in San Francisco on a press tour and Hynes flew from Los Angeles
to have lunch with him. Hynes said of the meeting, "I think we really [got] each other," and Pucci accepted the role a week later. Jena Malone
signed on to portray Joely because she "loved the script" and was keen to play "a woman on the cusp of learning to toy with her [...] sexual manipulation"; she only later learned that Hynes had written the role with her in mind, having previously worked with her on the short film Al as in Al. Hynes said that Zooey Deschanel
, Maura Tierney
, and Bill Duke
each joined the cast because they "read [the script] and really liked it". He made a deliberate attempt to cast Deschanel and Malone against their previous types
. He described Deschanel as a "glamour girl" and Malone as a sexually mature woman.
Four months before filming began, Hynes asked Barzun Donnelly to set US$
20,000–25,000 aside from the film's budget so that he could perform a test shoot. Hynes, cinematographer Byron Shah, a camera assistant, and a stand-in for Mercer—as Pucci had not yet been cast—traveled to every location in the film except for Mexico
. Over 2000 miles (3,218.7 km), they shot 8000 feet (2,438.4 m) of film, testing different filters
, lenses
, film stock
s, and shooting styles. Hynes wrote an 85-page shot list, "scop[ing] out" the entire film. He called the test shoot an "incredible boon" and remarked that "Not one frame of it ended up on the movie, but it paid for itself time and time again." After returning to Los Angeles, he visited each of the locations (including Mexico) again with the principal and technical crews.
Principal photography
began in mid-October 2005 and continued through November over a total period of 25 days. The film was shot in sequence, with production starting in Eugene
, Oregon
and then moving to Reno
, Nevada
and subsequently Ensenada
, Mexico
. Hynes called the filming "a high-wire act the whole way", and said that one of the biggest challenges was transporting the crew of 40 from Oregon to Mexico, sometimes changing locations twice a day with few hours of daylight. A crew member lost the project's filming permit on the last day of shooting in Mexico, and filming at rush hour
was halted by the police. Hynes took a smaller camera to film several blocks away from the original set
, but the second assistant director soon arrived warning that the police were coming and that they would be taken to prison because they did not have the paperwork for filming. Hynes and the crew "scatter[ed]", leaving Pucci alone further down the street, which Hynes claims is his strangest experience in the film industry. The crew later returned to Los Angeles to shoot final scenes and to commence post-production
.
opened the show as a supporting act, and Hynes recalled thinking, "Holy shit! That's the guy. That's it. He's perfect!" Hynes sent an unsolicited script of the film to Ward, who read it and signed on to the project when there was no financing behind the film nor any actors attached. He told Hynes that any of his songs could be used in the film; Hynes said that, in post-production, he tested every one of Ward's songs, including instrumental versions, in the final cut. In the beginning of the film, Mercer comes across a band; Hynes had always intended for whichever song they were playing to become the overture of the film. Ward's song "Vincent O'Brien" became that overture, and described the continuous presence of Ward's music as "a reminder of home". He decided that when Joely entered "it was right to step away from Mercer's sound—M. Ward—and [convey] that this movie has been overtaken by forces outside his control," using The Black Keys
' "10 A.M. Automatic" and "Keep Me" in addition to The Replacements' "Color Me Impressed". Hynes was able to obtain, at a low cost, "Banshee Beat" by Animal Collective
and the late Elliott Smith
's song "Coast to Coast", after writing a "heartfelt letter" to Smith's mother and sister, his main estate holders.
He also used "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" by novelty singer Corn Mo
at the insistence of Nick Offerman
, who plays three minor roles in the film. The Portland Youth Jazz Orchestra All Stars plays Ward's "One Life Away" as an "old-timey instrumental" for one of Mercer's dreams, an homage to a dancing sequence seen in Jean-Luc Godard
's 1964 film Bande à part. For the closing credits
, Ward and Zooey Deschanel recorded a duet cover of "When I Get to the Border" from Richard and Linda Thompson
's 1974 album I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
. The pair found themselves "mutually charmed", according to The New York Times
Melena Ryzik, and bonded over similar musical interests. After Ward listened to Deschanel's demos
, they paired up and formed the band She & Him
. Pitchfork Media
reported in April 2007 of a future The Go-Getter soundtrack to be released by Merge Records
, including a 12-song tracklist, but Merge later claimed that it was never planning to release a soundtrack.
. The film was subsequently screened at the AFI Dallas International Film Festival, Waterfront Film Festival
, Nantucket Film Festival
, Hamburg Film Festival, Austin Film Festival
, Stockholm International Film Festival
, and the Prague Febiofest
. Peace Arch Entertainment
bought the film's distribution rights and it was given a limited release
on June 6, 2008 in selective theatres in New York City
, Santa Monica
and Irvine
, California
, and Portland
, Oregon
. The film's release was withdrawn on June 8, its theatrical run lasting only three days. On its only open weekend, the film earned US$
11,931 across six locations with a per-screen average of $2,386. The Go-Getter placed 512th for the highest-grossing films of 2008 and 375th for the year's highest-grossing opening weekends.
and in August 2008 in Region 4. The region 1 disc includes an audio commentary
with Martin Hynes, a "20 Questions" featurette with the cast and crew, a voucher for the download of a She & Him
song, and a digital copy of the film for use with portable video players
.
reported that 43% of 23 collected reviews for the film were positive, with an average
score of 5.6/10 and the consensus that "The Go-Getter features nice performances, but ultimately fails to carve its own path". At Metacritic
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 69, based on 12 reviews.
Rolling Stone
s Peter Travers
awarded the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, commending the film for being "emotionally truthful, painfully funny and vibrantly alive" and labeling it "a near-perfect road movie". Stephen Holden
of The New York Times
believed that "Much of the dialogue is so quirky it sounds overheard instead of scripted" and called the cast "correspondingly spontaneous". New York
magazine's chief film critic David Edelstein
praised Hynes' "talent for deadpan jaw-droppers that aren't self-consciously quirky", and thought that "In The Go-Getter, filmmaking itself feels like Manifest Destiny
." Todd McCarthy, writing for Variety
, was impressed by Pucci's performance and Shah's cinematography, calling the film "an unusually fresh-feeling indie with a nice sense of style". Lou Lumenick
of the New York Post
wrote that The Go-Getter "breathes new life [...] into the overworked indie road-movie formula", labeling Pucci as "charming" and the cinematography as "unusually nice". The New York Press
s Mark Peikert thought that Deschanel made the film's flaws "almost forgivable", and that the film was "a feature-length audition reel for Deschanel to finally get the roles she deserves". New York Daily News critic Elizabeth Weitzman called Pucci "one of the best, and most overlooked, young actors around" and giving the film 4 out of 5 stars.
Other reviews were less positive. The Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano felt that "despite flashes of genuine emotion [The Go-Getter] eventually succumbs to its own tweeness" and that the "moments of beauty" were outweighed by "the mannered dialogue and hamstrung performances". Owen Gleiberman
of Entertainment Weekly
graded the film as a C
, saying that it "travels, but it doesn't go anywhere" and likening Pucci to "a wan, passive Johnny Depp
". The Hollywood Reporter
critic Frank Scheck praised the film's "appealing performances, sun-dappled cinematography and occasional witty dialogue", but thought that it was "contrived and derivative" and "a little too pleased with itself". The Globe and Mail
s Rick Groen called The Go-Getter "a fairly well-made picture that's just been fairly well-made too many times before, a knock-off of a thousand other knock-offs". Gabriel Wilder of The Sydney Morning Herald
felt that it was "hard to maintain interest in [Mercer's] plight" because of Pucci's underacting and thought that "the script isn't so much quirky as incomplete", referring to the film's ending. With a rating of 2.5 out of 4, Maitland McDonagh wrote for TV Guide
that the film is "too familiar to make any great impression".
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
road movie
Road movie
A road movie is a film genre in which the main character or characters leave home to travel from place to place. They usually leave home to escape their current lives.-History:...
directed and written by Martin Hynes
Martin Hynes
Martin Hynes is an American screenwriter, director, actor and producer of independent films.-Life and career:Hynes was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon and has a bachelors degree in history from Columbia University....
. The film stars Lou Taylor Pucci
Lou Taylor Pucci
Lou Taylor Pucci is an American actor who first appeared on film in Rebecca Miller's well received Personal Velocity: Three Portraits in 2002....
, Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress, musician, and singer-songwriter. In 1999, Deschanel made her film debut in Mumford, followed by her breakout role as young protagonist William Miller's troubled older sister Anita in Cameron Crowe's 2000 semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous...
, and Jena Malone
Jena Malone
Jena Malone is an American actress and musician who has appeared on television, in films, and on Broadway. She made her movie debut with the film Bastard Out of Carolina , and has appeared in films including Contact , Stepmom , Donnie Darko , Saved! , Into the Wild , and Sucker Punch .Malone is...
. In the film, 19-year-old Mercer (Pucci) steals a stranger's car to embark on a road trip to find his estranged brother and tell him that their mother has died. He communicates with the car's owner, Kate (Deschanel), via her cell phone while he travels.
The story was based partially on Hynes's own experiences. After his mother died, and his marriage ended, he took a road trip
Road trip
A road trip is any journey taken on roads, regardless of stops en route. Typically, road trips are long distances traveled by automobile.-Pre-automobile road trips:...
of his own and wrote "different things," some of which came together in the script for The Go-Getter. Before production began, Hynes and three other crew members traveled to almost every location visited in the film to perform a test shoot, trying various filming styles and techniques. Filming took place between October and November 2005 in Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Singer and guitarist M. Ward
M. Ward
Matthew Stephen Ward, known by his stage name M. Ward, is a singer-songwriter and guitarist who rose to prominence in the Portland, Oregon music scene. In addition to his solo work he is known as a member of She & Him and Monsters of Folk.-Career:...
provided most of the music for the film, complemented by songs from The Black Keys
The Black Keys
The Black Keys are an American rock duo consisting of vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer/producer Patrick Carney. The band was formed in Akron, Ohio, in 2001. As of October 2011, the band has sold over 2 million albums in the U.S....
, Elliott Smith
Elliott Smith
Steven Paul "Elliott" Smith was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and resided for a significant portion of his life in Portland, Oregon, where he first gained popularity...
, The Replacements, and Animal Collective
Animal Collective
Animal Collective is an experimental psychedelic band originally from Baltimore, Maryland, currently based in New York City. Animal Collective consists of Avey Tare , Panda Bear , Deakin , and Geologist...
.
The Go-Getter debuted on January 22, 2007 at the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
and was given a limited theatrical release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
on June 6, 2008 by Peace Arch Entertainment. Its run lasted just three days, and it grossed only US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
11,931. Critics were divided in reaction to the film; some praised the performances, the dialogue and the cinematography, while others thought it was unoriginal, forgettable, and poorly acted.
Plot
One ordinary day, 19-year-old Mercer White (Lou Taylor PucciLou Taylor Pucci
Lou Taylor Pucci is an American actor who first appeared on film in Rebecca Miller's well received Personal Velocity: Three Portraits in 2002....
) steals a Volvo
Volvo 200 series
The Volvo 200 series is a range of large family cars , produced by Volvo from 1974 to 1993, with more than 2.8 million units sold worldwide. The 200 series was essentially an updated version of the 140; both were designed by Jan Wilsgaard. It shared the same body, but included a number of...
station wagon from a car wash, and leaves Eugene, Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
to find his estranged half-brother Arlen, who is unaware that their mother has recently died. Soon after leaving, a cell phone in the car rings, and Mercer finds himself talking to the owner of the car, Kate (Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress, musician, and singer-songwriter. In 1999, Deschanel made her film debut in Mumford, followed by her breakout role as young protagonist William Miller's troubled older sister Anita in Cameron Crowe's 2000 semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous...
), who lends him her car on the condition that he calls regularly to describe his trip to her.
Mercer travels to a bohemian pottery-making commune in Shelter Cove, California
Shelter Cove, California
Shelter Cove is a census-designated place in Humboldt County, California. It lies at an elevation of 138 feet . Shelter Cove is on California's Lost Coast. Lying where the King Range meets the Pacific Ocean, it is a principal population center in the Lost Coast region...
where Arlen once lived, but learns that he moved to Reno, Nevada
Reno, Nevada
Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...
. He passes through Fallon, Nevada
Fallon, Nevada
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 7,536 people, 3,004 households, and 1,877 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,474.1 people per square mile . There were 3,336 housing units at an average density of 1,095.2 per square mile...
to meet up with the seductive Joely (Jena Malone
Jena Malone
Jena Malone is an American actress and musician who has appeared on television, in films, and on Broadway. She made her movie debut with the film Bastard Out of Carolina , and has appeared in films including Contact , Stepmom , Donnie Darko , Saved! , Into the Wild , and Sucker Punch .Malone is...
), his middle school crush. In Reno, they take ecstasy and almost have sex before Mercer resumes his search for Arlen. Later he finds himself on the set of a pornographic film, where the director (Julio Oscar Mechoso
Julio Oscar Mechoso
Julio Oscar Mechoso is an American actor. He is occasionally credited as Julio Mechoso.Mechoso is a character actor in both television and film. He has appeared in several high-profile films, such as Grindhouse, Bad Boys and the controversial Ken Park. His television credits include Miami Vice,...
) tells him that Arlen left to work at a pet store in Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
. Joely asks Mercer if he can drive her cousin Buddy (Colin Fickes
Colin Fickes
Colin Fickes is an American actor.He is best known as high school teenager Jimmy Edwards on the hit series One Tree Hill. In one of the series' most notable episodes, the character committed suicide after bringing a gun to his school Tree Hill High, resulting in a hostage situation. Jimmy Edwards...
) and his friend Rid (William Lee Scott
William Lee Scott
William Lee Scott is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of dim-witted high school student Stanley "Bullethead" Kuznocki on the WB sitcom The Steve Harvey Show...
) to Mojave, California
Mojave, California
Mojave is a census-designated place in Kern County, California, United States. Mojave is located east of Bakersfield, at an elevation of 2762 feet...
, where they are building their own car. While driving, Mercer finds Kate's YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
card in the trunk of her car and, now knowing what she looks like, describes a dream to her in which he, Joely, and Kate are dancing in a re-enactment of Bande à parts dance sequence. Not wanting to get sidetracked, he tries to leave the others behind in a motel room, but when Buddy threatens to steal the car, Mercer tells him that the car belongs to his girlfriend, and Buddy, Rid, and Joely leave without Mercer in Kate's car. He hitchhikes to Mojave and finds the salvage yard where Buddy and Rid are working, and retrieves the car.
Mercer talks to Kate while driving, imagining her sitting in the back seat of the car, but she hangs up in jealousy when he mentions Joely for the first time. He arrives in Sacramento and finds the pet store where Arlen worked. The owner (Maura Tierney
Maura Tierney
Maura Therese Tierney is an American film and television actress, who is best known for her roles as Lisa Miller on NewsRadio and Abby Lockhart on the television medical drama ER.-Early life:...
) asks Mercer to sing in her children's band, for which she plays as part of her probation. When he returns to the car, he finds somebody trying to break into it, only to discover that it is Kate. They spend the night at a hotel, but he leaves without her the next morning and catches a train to Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. With the help of a translator, he phones Arlen's last residence and learns from a Hispanic woman that Arlen is working at a hotel in Ensenada, Mexico. Mercer finally meets Arlen (Jsu Garcia
Jsu Garcia
Jsu Garcia is an American film and television actor, and film producer. In his earlier years, he was credited under the name Nick Corri. Together with author John-Roger, he runs the production company Scott J-R Productions....
) at the hotel in Ensenada, but Arlen assumes Mercer is just there for money. Enraged, Mercer tackles his brother to the ground and gets kicked off the premises. Kate later finds a bloody Mercer sitting on the side of a road and takes him to a hotel. She tells him that she let him take her car because she was attracted to him, and they have sex. The next day Mercer meets with Arlen again, more amicably, and tells him that he and Kate are driving to Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
to spread his mother's ashes.
Development
Martin Hynes
Martin Hynes is an American screenwriter, director, actor and producer of independent films.-Life and career:Hynes was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon and has a bachelors degree in history from Columbia University....
referred to the film as "very uncomfortably autobiographical". He had learned that his mother was diagnosed with cancer when making his 1999 film The Big Split
The Big Split
The Big Split is a 1999 romantic comedy independent film written, directed and produced by Martin Hynes, and starring Hynes opposite Judy Greer.The film won a Golden Trailer award in 2001 in the category "Best Trailer - No Budget"....
. His marriage ended soon after his mother died, which Hynes saw as "a huge amount of loss". After deciding that "I have to do less," he took a road trip, spending much of his time writing as he traveled. He wrote "really different things", some of which were pieced together and led to his script for The Go-Getter, which he wrote in 2004. Within six months of the script's completion, producer Lucy Barzun Donnelly had raised the entire budget of the film without any actors attached at the time.
Barzun Donnelly recommended to Hynes that he consider Lou Taylor Pucci
Lou Taylor Pucci
Lou Taylor Pucci is an American actor who first appeared on film in Rebecca Miller's well received Personal Velocity: Three Portraits in 2002....
for the lead role of Mercer, believing that he was "perfect". Hynes watched Pucci's 2005 film Thumbsucker
Thumbsucker (film)
Thumbsucker is a 2005 American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Mills adapted from the Walter Kirn novel of the same name. The movie focuses on teenager Justin Cobb and how he copes with his thumb sucking problem, and his experiments with hypnosis, sex and drugs.-Plot:Justin Cobb is a shy...
and thought that "We'd be so lucky to have him." He contacted Pucci about the role but was leaving for Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
in less than a week to attend a friend's wedding and wanted to meet with him before leaving. Pucci was in San Francisco on a press tour and Hynes flew from Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to have lunch with him. Hynes said of the meeting, "I think we really [got] each other," and Pucci accepted the role a week later. Jena Malone
Jena Malone
Jena Malone is an American actress and musician who has appeared on television, in films, and on Broadway. She made her movie debut with the film Bastard Out of Carolina , and has appeared in films including Contact , Stepmom , Donnie Darko , Saved! , Into the Wild , and Sucker Punch .Malone is...
signed on to portray Joely because she "loved the script" and was keen to play "a woman on the cusp of learning to toy with her [...] sexual manipulation"; she only later learned that Hynes had written the role with her in mind, having previously worked with her on the short film Al as in Al. Hynes said that Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress, musician, and singer-songwriter. In 1999, Deschanel made her film debut in Mumford, followed by her breakout role as young protagonist William Miller's troubled older sister Anita in Cameron Crowe's 2000 semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous...
, Maura Tierney
Maura Tierney
Maura Therese Tierney is an American film and television actress, who is best known for her roles as Lisa Miller on NewsRadio and Abby Lockhart on the television medical drama ER.-Early life:...
, and Bill Duke
Bill Duke
William Henry "Bill" Duke, Jr. is an American actor and film director with over 30 years of experience. Known for his physically imposing frame, Duke's work frequently dwells within the action/crime and drama genres but also includes comedy.-Early life:Duke was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, the...
each joined the cast because they "read [the script] and really liked it". He made a deliberate attempt to cast Deschanel and Malone against their previous types
Typecasting (acting)
In TV, film, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character; one or more particular roles; or, characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ethnic groups...
. He described Deschanel as a "glamour girl" and Malone as a sexually mature woman.
Filming
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
20,000–25,000 aside from the film's budget so that he could perform a test shoot. Hynes, cinematographer Byron Shah, a camera assistant, and a stand-in for Mercer—as Pucci had not yet been cast—traveled to every location in the film except for Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Over 2000 miles (3,218.7 km), they shot 8000 feet (2,438.4 m) of film, testing different filters
Photographic filter
In photography and videography, a filter is a camera accessory consisting of an optical filter that can be inserted in the optical path. The filter can be a square or oblong shape mounted in a holder accessory, or, more commonly, a glass or plastic disk with a metal or plastic ring frame, which...
, lenses
Photographic lens
A camera lens is an optical lens or assembly of lenses used in conjunction with a camera body and mechanism to make images of objects either on photographic film or on other media capable of storing an image chemically or electronically.While in principle a simple convex lens will suffice, in...
, film stock
Film stock
Film stock is photographic film on which filmmaking of motion pictures are shot and reproduced. The equivalent in television production is video tape.-1889–1899:...
s, and shooting styles. Hynes wrote an 85-page shot list, "scop[ing] out" the entire film. He called the test shoot an "incredible boon" and remarked that "Not one frame of it ended up on the movie, but it paid for itself time and time again." After returning to Los Angeles, he visited each of the locations (including Mexico) again with the principal and technical crews.
Principal photography
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
began in mid-October 2005 and continued through November over a total period of 25 days. The film was shot in sequence, with production starting in Eugene
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
and then moving to Reno
Reno, Nevada
Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...
, Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
and subsequently Ensenada
Ensenada, Baja California
Ensenada is a coastal city in Mexico and the third-largest city in Baja California. It is located south of San Diego on the Baja California Peninsula. The city is locally referred to as La Cenicienta del Pacífico, or, The Cinderella of the Pacific...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Hynes called the filming "a high-wire act the whole way", and said that one of the biggest challenges was transporting the crew of 40 from Oregon to Mexico, sometimes changing locations twice a day with few hours of daylight. A crew member lost the project's filming permit on the last day of shooting in Mexico, and filming at rush hour
Rush hour
A rush hour or peak hour is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice a day—once in the morning and once in the evening, the times during when the most people commute...
was halted by the police. Hynes took a smaller camera to film several blocks away from the original set
Set construction
Set construction is the process by which a set designer works in collaboration with the director of a production to create the set for a theatrical, film or television production...
, but the second assistant director soon arrived warning that the police were coming and that they would be taken to prison because they did not have the paperwork for filming. Hynes and the crew "scatter[ed]", leaving Pucci alone further down the street, which Hynes claims is his strangest experience in the film industry. The crew later returned to Los Angeles to shoot final scenes and to commence post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
.
Music
When searching for the film's music, one of the producers suggested to Hynes that he go to a Bright Eyes concert. Singer and guitarist M. WardM. Ward
Matthew Stephen Ward, known by his stage name M. Ward, is a singer-songwriter and guitarist who rose to prominence in the Portland, Oregon music scene. In addition to his solo work he is known as a member of She & Him and Monsters of Folk.-Career:...
opened the show as a supporting act, and Hynes recalled thinking, "Holy shit! That's the guy. That's it. He's perfect!" Hynes sent an unsolicited script of the film to Ward, who read it and signed on to the project when there was no financing behind the film nor any actors attached. He told Hynes that any of his songs could be used in the film; Hynes said that, in post-production, he tested every one of Ward's songs, including instrumental versions, in the final cut. In the beginning of the film, Mercer comes across a band; Hynes had always intended for whichever song they were playing to become the overture of the film. Ward's song "Vincent O'Brien" became that overture, and described the continuous presence of Ward's music as "a reminder of home". He decided that when Joely entered "it was right to step away from Mercer's sound—M. Ward—and [convey] that this movie has been overtaken by forces outside his control," using The Black Keys
The Black Keys
The Black Keys are an American rock duo consisting of vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer/producer Patrick Carney. The band was formed in Akron, Ohio, in 2001. As of October 2011, the band has sold over 2 million albums in the U.S....
' "10 A.M. Automatic" and "Keep Me" in addition to The Replacements' "Color Me Impressed". Hynes was able to obtain, at a low cost, "Banshee Beat" by Animal Collective
Animal Collective
Animal Collective is an experimental psychedelic band originally from Baltimore, Maryland, currently based in New York City. Animal Collective consists of Avey Tare , Panda Bear , Deakin , and Geologist...
and the late Elliott Smith
Elliott Smith
Steven Paul "Elliott" Smith was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and resided for a significant portion of his life in Portland, Oregon, where he first gained popularity...
's song "Coast to Coast", after writing a "heartfelt letter" to Smith's mother and sister, his main estate holders.
He also used "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" by novelty singer Corn Mo
Corn Mo
Corn Mo is the stage name of Jon Cunningham, a Brooklyn-based musician. Corn Mo sings, plays the accordion, keyboards, and sometimes performs as a one man band. His music style is a mixture of circus music, glam rock, and humorous novelty songs. He is currently recording his third solo album, and...
at the insistence of Nick Offerman
Nick Offerman
Nick Offerman is an American actor best known for his role as Ron Swanson in the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation. He is also a skilled woodworker.-Early life and career:...
, who plays three minor roles in the film. The Portland Youth Jazz Orchestra All Stars plays Ward's "One Life Away" as an "old-timey instrumental" for one of Mercer's dreams, an homage to a dancing sequence seen in Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
's 1964 film Bande à part. For the closing credits
Closing credits
Closing credits or end credits are added at the end of a motion picture, television program, or video game to list the cast and crew involved in the production. They usually appear as a list of names in small type, which either flip very quickly from page to page, or move smoothly across the...
, Ward and Zooey Deschanel recorded a duet cover of "When I Get to the Border" from Richard and Linda Thompson
Linda Thompson (singer)
Linda Thompson is a British singer. Born Linda Pettifer in Hackney, Thompson became one of the most recognised names—and voices—in the British folk rock movement of the 1970s and 1980s, in collaboration with her former husband and fellow British folk rock musician, guitarist Richard...
's 1974 album I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
Q : "After his 1971 departure from Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson found his ideal foil in recent bride Linda. A hugely inventive guitarist, he gives full vent to his talent on this dark, brooding album...
. The pair found themselves "mutually charmed", according to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
Melena Ryzik, and bonded over similar musical interests. After Ward listened to Deschanel's demos
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
, they paired up and formed the band She & Him
She & Him
She & Him is an American indie pop duo consisting of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward . The band's first album, Volume One, was released on Merge Records in March 2008...
. Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
reported in April 2007 of a future The Go-Getter soundtrack to be released by Merge Records
Merge Records
Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as a way to release music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expanded to include artists from around the world and records...
, including a 12-song tracklist, but Merge later claimed that it was never planning to release a soundtrack.
Theatrical release
The world premiere of The Go-Getter was held on January 22, 2007 at the Sundance Film FestivalSundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
. The film was subsequently screened at the AFI Dallas International Film Festival, Waterfront Film Festival
Waterfront Film Festival
The Waterfront Film Festival takes place annually in the town of Saugatuck, Michigan in the United States. It is in its 13th year as of 2011.Ranked as one of the top 5 film festivals in the world by SAGIndie in the Screen Actors Guild Magazine, the Waterfront Film Festival draws thousands of movie...
, Nantucket Film Festival
Nantucket Film Festival
The Nantucket Film Festival is a film festival founded in 1996 to promote the cultural awareness and appreciation of the art of screenwriting in the world of cinema. Nantucket Film Festival screens a world-class program of independent, studio-produced, foreign, documentary, and short films in every...
, Hamburg Film Festival, Austin Film Festival
Austin Film Festival
The Austin Film Festival was started in 1994 in Austin, Texas and is claimed to be "the first organization of its kind to focus on the writer’s unique creative contribution to the film and television industries"...
, Stockholm International Film Festival
Stockholm International Film Festival
The Stockholm International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Stockholm, Sweden. It was launched in 1990 and has been held every year in the second half of November...
, and the Prague Febiofest
Febiofest
Febiofest is the largest film festival in the Czech Republic and the second most prestigious festival in the country . The festival presents a wide spectrum of contemporary and retrospective examples of high-quality film including alternative, film-school and amateur works to a diverse viewing...
. Peace Arch Entertainment
Peace Arch Entertainment
Peace Arch Entertainment is a Canadian motion picture and television production company based in Toronto, Canada with offices in Los Angeles and Vancouver...
bought the film's distribution rights and it was given a limited release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
on June 6, 2008 in selective theatres in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Santa Monica
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
and Irvine
Irvine, California
Irvine is a suburban incorporated city in Orange County, California, United States. It is a planned city, mainly developed by the Irvine Company since the 1960s. Formally incorporated on December 28, 1971, the city has a population of 212,375 as of the 2010 census. However, the California...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
. The film's release was withdrawn on June 8, its theatrical run lasting only three days. On its only open weekend, the film earned US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
11,931 across six locations with a per-screen average of $2,386. The Go-Getter placed 512th for the highest-grossing films of 2008 and 375th for the year's highest-grossing opening weekends.
Home media
The Go-Getter was released on DVD on October 21, 2008 in Region 1DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
and in August 2008 in Region 4. The region 1 disc includes an audio commentary
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
with Martin Hynes, a "20 Questions" featurette with the cast and crew, a voucher for the download of a She & Him
She & Him
She & Him is an American indie pop duo consisting of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward . The band's first album, Volume One, was released on Merge Records in March 2008...
song, and a digital copy of the film for use with portable video players
Portable media player
A portable media player or digital audio player, is a consumer electronics device that is capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, video, documents, etc. the data is typically stored on a hard drive, microdrive, or flash memory. In contrast, analog portable audio...
.
Reception
Review aggregator website Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 43% of 23 collected reviews for the film were positive, with an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 5.6/10 and the consensus that "The Go-Getter features nice performances, but ultimately fails to carve its own path". At Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 69, based on 12 reviews.
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
awarded the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, commending the film for being "emotionally truthful, painfully funny and vibrantly alive" and labeling it "a near-perfect road movie". Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden is an American writer, music critic, film critic, and poet.Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
believed that "Much of the dialogue is so quirky it sounds overheard instead of scripted" and called the cast "correspondingly spontaneous". New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine's chief film critic David Edelstein
David Edelstein
David Edelstein is the chief film critic for New York Magazine, as well as the film critic for NPR's Fresh Air and CBS Sunday Morning. He lives in Brooklyn, New York....
praised Hynes' "talent for deadpan jaw-droppers that aren't self-consciously quirky", and thought that "In The Go-Getter, filmmaking itself feels like Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny was the 19th century American belief that the United States was destined to expand across the continent. It was used by Democrat-Republicans in the 1840s to justify the war with Mexico; the concept was denounced by Whigs, and fell into disuse after the mid-19th century.Advocates of...
." Todd McCarthy, writing for Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, was impressed by Pucci's performance and Shah's cinematography, calling the film "an unusually fresh-feeling indie with a nice sense of style". Lou Lumenick
Lou Lumenick
Louis J. "Lou" Lumenick is an American film critic. He is the chief film critic and a blogger for the New York Post and has reviewed films there since 1999.-Life and career:Lumenick was born and raised in Astoria, Queens...
of the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
wrote that The Go-Getter "breathes new life [...] into the overworked indie road-movie formula", labeling Pucci as "charming" and the cinematography as "unusually nice". The New York Press
New York Press
New York Press was a free alternative weekly in New York City, that was published from 1988 to 2011. During its lifetime, it was the main competitor to the Village Voice...
s Mark Peikert thought that Deschanel made the film's flaws "almost forgivable", and that the film was "a feature-length audition reel for Deschanel to finally get the roles she deserves". New York Daily News critic Elizabeth Weitzman called Pucci "one of the best, and most overlooked, young actors around" and giving the film 4 out of 5 stars.
Other reviews were less positive. The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
Carina Chocano felt that "despite flashes of genuine emotion [The Go-Getter] eventually succumbs to its own tweeness" and that the "moments of beauty" were outweighed by "the mannered dialogue and hamstrung performances". Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic for Entertainment Weekly, a position he has held since the magazine's launch in 1990. From 1981–89, he worked at the Boston Phoenix....
of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
graded the film as a C
Grade (education)
Grades are standardized measurements of varying levels of comprehension within a subject area. Grades can be assigned in letters , as a range , as a number out of a possible total , as descriptors , in percentages, or, as is common in some post-secondary...
, saying that it "travels, but it doesn't go anywhere" and likening Pucci to "a wan, passive Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
". The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
critic Frank Scheck praised the film's "appealing performances, sun-dappled cinematography and occasional witty dialogue", but thought that it was "contrived and derivative" and "a little too pleased with itself". The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
s Rick Groen called The Go-Getter "a fairly well-made picture that's just been fairly well-made too many times before, a knock-off of a thousand other knock-offs". Gabriel Wilder of The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
felt that it was "hard to maintain interest in [Mercer's] plight" because of Pucci's underacting and thought that "the script isn't so much quirky as incomplete", referring to the film's ending. With a rating of 2.5 out of 4, Maitland McDonagh wrote for TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
that the film is "too familiar to make any great impression".