Rating: 7/10

When James (Jeff Garlin) has a problem in life, he eats. Instead of asking his family, friends or loved ones for support, he buys pudding in bulk and eats it in a parking lot.

In “I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With,” James is a 39-year-old, large individual who still lives with his mother on the north side of Chicago. He’s a single, unemployed actor who longs to find true love one way or another. To put it simply, he wants someone to eat cheese with him.

In this movie, James idly drifts through life and the viewer assumes that this is how things have always been for him. Throughout the course of the film, James gets fired from Second City and takes a job as an actor on a hidden camera show that sets out to ruin peoples lives.

He talks to homeless men about actresses and what movies they were naked in. He even goes to a “Career Day” at his niece’s school and rants about how he hasn’t been with a woman in years.

He knows his life is going horribly, and it only goes downhill when he meets two women who oddly show interest in him.

Stella (Bonnie Hunt) is a Kindergarten teacher who is a notorious “chubby chaser.” She meets James at a vinyl shop in Chicago and the two flirt innocently.

On the other side of the spectrum is the free spirit Beth, (Sarah Silverman) who serves James ice cream one day. The two go underwear shopping and soon James begins to really like her zaniness. But, she has a hidden agenda; she just wants to be with a “chubby” guy.

Throughout the course of this 80-minute film, James embarks on his quest to determine the girl he wants to eat cheese with. This incredibly low-budget indie film is a philosophical surprise.

Jeff Garlin, who also wrote and directed the film, allows the audience to get an intimate look into this somewhat auto-biographical story. Garlin, who plays Larry David’s sidekick on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” finally gets a chance to branch out on his own and showcase his better than expected acting skills.

Although he is virtually playing a character based on himself, Garlin has comfort and pureness in front of the camera.

Saving the film from mediocrity are the few scenes in which Sarah Silverman and Garlin share. The high-point of the one-dimensional story is an improvisation between Silverman and Garlin in a grocery store aisle.

Finally, Silverman has been cast in a role that suits her eccentric wit, rather than making her an over-the-top lunatic like in “School of Rock” or “School For Scoundrels.”

However, at times, this comedy appears to be a little too self-indulgent. In order to get its “indie-cred,” everyone talks about obscure jazz, obscure movies and obscure references to other obscure references.

Even though the movie does seem very true and realistic, some dialogue seems to be influenced, or borrowed from a page of “Seinfeld” or “Curb your Enthusiasm.” But doesn’t everything nowadays?

Garlin incorporates the city of Chicago not only as a setting, but a way of life and culture. Scenes in Millennium Park and restaurants near Wrigleyville provide a charming anecdote to an already very personal movie.

“I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With” should be seen only for the sheer frustration that it puts the viewer through in a short time span. When the end credits rolled it felt like nothing had been resolved. But then it seemed that maybe the purpose of this movie was to have no purpose.

Fans of Silverman, Garlin or Chicago will not be disappointed with this directorial debut. But be prepared to ask yourself a difficult question once you see this film: Is there a synonymous meaning when comparing love and cheese?

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