Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Catch and Release

Don't bother getting your fishing license. Don't even bother going to the lake. Dubbing itself a romantic comedy, this film has an extremely disturbing sense of romance, and a gaping void of comedy. I do think my wife liked it better than I did, but I doubt by much. To avoid spoilers, I'll stick with what was advertised in the trailer and say the main underlying themes deal with death, love, secrets, depression and moving on from all of it. It's a movie about a bride whose groom dies before the wedding takes place. At the wake, she is introduced to the new romantic lead, who is portrayed as scum. Not exactly the way to get me behind a character. His disturbing spiral of lies and disrespect only intrigues her more and more, and we're supposed to be going along for the ride with a potentially growing courtship. The problem is, both characters have few redeeming qualities to really make you care either way. Kevin Smith was a lone bright spot for me, but it lasted all of five minutes. His interaction with a young boy in the film was humorous, but the fortune cookie sayings that were sprayed through the trailer get more and more annoying. The other male friend in the movie is the definition of pathetically creepy. We're supposed to find him charming, sensitive and brotherly, but he may be the most disturbing character in the movie. Bottom line, I watch films like this for mild entertainment and don't mind plot holes or shortcomings. I'm very easy when it comes to enjoying a movie, and I enjoy tales of getting through depressing times, just not when they're done as poorly and accidentally bipolar as this. This movie wasn't even close to mildly entertaining. The sad moments were detached. The happy moments were yawners. The conclusion was predictably forced. Again, don't bother catching this movie, and if you do, please don't throw it back for the rest of the world.
  • OVERALL: 63
  • VISUAL: 75
  • STORY: 50
  • ACTING: 65
  • BETTER THAN: Uptown Girls
  • NOT AS GOOD AS: Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself
  • WAS MISSING: Boating accident to end their misery
  • SEE IT FOR: A how-to on obsessive, yet-cute depression

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dude this is helarious. Please post more reviews of movies!

Melissa Korpi said...

Yes, I liked it more than you, but that's not saying much, is it? I admit that it was not a good movie, but I like Jennifer Garner so much that it was just bearable enough to finish it.