I just rented this - a great mistake. There are some films that make you feel you're inside the mind of someone you loathe - I remember feeling this way watching Death Wish III, watching Ten Things You Know About Her, and watching this.
Romantic comedy needn't be terribly funny, have a plausible plot, create a believable hurdle for the two loves, or even have characters you believe should be together -- but it must have likable characters. If they aren't people you care for, it fails. This movie fails.
This movie asks us to root for three couples to get together: i) a sadly scared wallflower to get together with a man who mugs others daily (with chloroform, usually at an ATM), ii) a recently divorced man (yet another obsessed with the Rat Pack a la Swingers) to get together with a foul-mouthed mean-spirited vain woman, and iii) a third man who left his fiancée ten days before their wedding to get together with her now that she's become an ugly (and yet again) foul-mouthed tramp with a different unknown man each night who likes to put the strangers down for what she believes to be their sexual inadequacy.
It was difficult watching this not to feel sorry for the decline of movie-making in Britain. One can't help while watching this, thinking of the charm, the warmth, the intelligence, the grace of the characters in movies portrayed by such as Jean Simmons or Greer Garson, Anna Neagle or Deborah Kerr, Margaret Lockwood or Vivien Leigh, Celia Johnson or Sally Ann Howes, the Vanessa Redgrave of Morgan, or Camelot, or the Julie Christie of Billy Liar - in such films as Bank Holiday or Night Train to Munich, Waterloo Bridge or Stairway to Heaven, the Clouded Yellow or I See A Dark Stranger, one sees humor shown by people one likes - with charm and imagination and finely- written lines.
For decades now, British filmmakers have been afraid to create lovely female characters - except in period pieces. Only in those can we see sympathetic female lead characters - contemporary settings apparently require that we be served up deeply unsympathetic women and told to like them.
This filmmaker apparently believes that straightforward criminal behavior is a charming quirk, that degeneracy is gracious and humorous. It's sad - and will leave any viewer feeling like he wants a shower after the film ends. Despite yelling at the screen, "NO! RUN! RUN!" the movie brings these couples together for no reason other than to illustrate their suicidal tendency.
This is just a truly ugly and ignorant movie. At one point, the wallflower character says that it's a terrible pity that Britain doesn't have its own "Day of the Dead" - leaving every viewer thinking, "But Britain has commemorated All Souls Day and All Saints Day for centuries before Mexico - I don't understand."
At one point, a woman is mugged, and realizes she can identify both the criminal who chloroformed her (leaving disfiguring marks) - and where he lives - yet bewilderingly, the movie fails to inform anyone why the police are not called.
At one point, a cab driver who has never apparently been to this salsa club that figures in many of the scenes - walks in and immediately and expertly begins to dance with the instructor. Why? We sadly suspect it is merely because the screenwriter believes that black men dance well. (Oddly, the club itself seems to have dozens of black men dancing there each evening - and no black women).
We are given no hint of why the couples do finally get together - there is simply no reason given us why the conflicts that existed have been eliminated. We are simply told that this is so. This is a difficult point of resolution for many romantic comedies - and if we wanted any of these couples to be together, if we could bear two of the women or the man in the third couple, we'd forgive it - but we can't - and we don't. We hate them.
This is one to hate - and will leave you feeling strongly that you never accidentally see another movie written by this screenwriter.
Romantic comedy needn't be terribly funny, have a plausible plot, create a believable hurdle for the two loves, or even have characters you believe should be together -- but it must have likable characters. If they aren't people you care for, it fails. This movie fails.
This movie asks us to root for three couples to get together: i) a sadly scared wallflower to get together with a man who mugs others daily (with chloroform, usually at an ATM), ii) a recently divorced man (yet another obsessed with the Rat Pack a la Swingers) to get together with a foul-mouthed mean-spirited vain woman, and iii) a third man who left his fiancée ten days before their wedding to get together with her now that she's become an ugly (and yet again) foul-mouthed tramp with a different unknown man each night who likes to put the strangers down for what she believes to be their sexual inadequacy.
It was difficult watching this not to feel sorry for the decline of movie-making in Britain. One can't help while watching this, thinking of the charm, the warmth, the intelligence, the grace of the characters in movies portrayed by such as Jean Simmons or Greer Garson, Anna Neagle or Deborah Kerr, Margaret Lockwood or Vivien Leigh, Celia Johnson or Sally Ann Howes, the Vanessa Redgrave of Morgan, or Camelot, or the Julie Christie of Billy Liar - in such films as Bank Holiday or Night Train to Munich, Waterloo Bridge or Stairway to Heaven, the Clouded Yellow or I See A Dark Stranger, one sees humor shown by people one likes - with charm and imagination and finely- written lines.
For decades now, British filmmakers have been afraid to create lovely female characters - except in period pieces. Only in those can we see sympathetic female lead characters - contemporary settings apparently require that we be served up deeply unsympathetic women and told to like them.
This filmmaker apparently believes that straightforward criminal behavior is a charming quirk, that degeneracy is gracious and humorous. It's sad - and will leave any viewer feeling like he wants a shower after the film ends. Despite yelling at the screen, "NO! RUN! RUN!" the movie brings these couples together for no reason other than to illustrate their suicidal tendency.
This is just a truly ugly and ignorant movie. At one point, the wallflower character says that it's a terrible pity that Britain doesn't have its own "Day of the Dead" - leaving every viewer thinking, "But Britain has commemorated All Souls Day and All Saints Day for centuries before Mexico - I don't understand."
At one point, a woman is mugged, and realizes she can identify both the criminal who chloroformed her (leaving disfiguring marks) - and where he lives - yet bewilderingly, the movie fails to inform anyone why the police are not called.
At one point, a cab driver who has never apparently been to this salsa club that figures in many of the scenes - walks in and immediately and expertly begins to dance with the instructor. Why? We sadly suspect it is merely because the screenwriter believes that black men dance well. (Oddly, the club itself seems to have dozens of black men dancing there each evening - and no black women).
We are given no hint of why the couples do finally get together - there is simply no reason given us why the conflicts that existed have been eliminated. We are simply told that this is so. This is a difficult point of resolution for many romantic comedies - and if we wanted any of these couples to be together, if we could bear two of the women or the man in the third couple, we'd forgive it - but we can't - and we don't. We hate them.
This is one to hate - and will leave you feeling strongly that you never accidentally see another movie written by this screenwriter.