My Date With Drew

Reviewed by Rich Drees

    The drop in price and the rise in quality of digital video cameras and editing software have opened the door for many aspiring filmmakers to bypass the more traditional methods of funding a project that may have previously gone unmade. Such a film is My Date With Drew, a documentary chronicling a rather different sort of love story.

     Since he first saw her in Steven Spielberg’s ET: The Extra-Terrestrial (1980), Brian Herzlinger has been infatuated with actress Drew Barrymore. Roughly the same age, Herzlinger followed her career raise from child star to Hollywood power player while his own attempts to get a career started in Tinsletown have met with considerably less success. Almost on a whim, Herzlinger decides that he will attempt to meet the object of his admiration and ask Barrymore out on a date. Frustrated filmmaker that he is, Herzlinger also decides to film the attempt. Armed with $1,100.00 won on a game show and a store bought video camera, Herzlinger begins to use whatever connections in show business he has access to, to try and meet the actress, getting a facial from Barrymore’s dermatologist and interviewing former child actor Corey Feldman. However, Herzlinger and his crew are under a time limit of 30 days, as that’s the maximum amount of time they can use the video camera before returning it to Circuit City for a full refund.

     On first glance, the film’s premise definite does give off more than a faint whiff of stalker, and they are actively aware that their film project could indeed be perceived that way. But Herzlinger and his friends have a goofy charm about themselves that quickly dispels any misgivings a viewer may have. They know that the odds are against them that Herzlinger will ever meet Barrymore yet alone consent to go on a date with him. But the initial success the group meets in trying to get in contact with Barrymore actually energizes their efforts.

     What keeps My Date With Drew from seeming like a reality TV show for the silver screen is how it shows how the Hollywood system sometimes works through equal parts “friends of a friend” connections, shucking and jiving and shear dumb luck, or in the case of the sequence where Herzlinger is able to con his way into the Charlie’s Angels 2 premier party in an attempt to meet Barrymore, all three in tandem. Does Herzlinger get his date with Drew? That would be telling. But regardless of the outcome, My Date With Drew makes for charming viewing, perhaps with a date of one’s own.