Movie Review Just My Luck

Just My Luck (2006) 

Directed by Donald Petrie

Written by I Marlene King, Amy B. Harris

Starring Lindsay Lohan, Chris Pine, Faizon Love, Missy Pyle 

Release Date May 12th, 2006

Published May 11th, 2006

In her first major role since becoming a weekly tabloid headline crasher, Lindsey Lohan takes on the eerily similar role of a flashy New York socialite whose life revolves around parties and guys in the farcical romance Just My Luck. The film is supposed to be a lighthearted romance but somehow Lohan's tabloid persona shades the film in an unflattering self parody of a woman who gets everything she ever wants and doesn't really appreciate it.

Just My Luck posits Ms. Lohan as Ashley the luckiest girl alive. Everything from the weather to every possible coincidence goes her way. She has lucked herself into a high profile, high paying job as a party planner and won the heart of an heir to a multi-million dollar fortune.

Ashley's luck changes when, during a party she planned for a record mogul played by Faizon Love, a tarot card reader tells her that the wheel of fate is coming around for her. Her luck is about to change. After the run in with the tarot card lady, Ashley hooks up with a masked man and shares a kiss before he disappears into the night. With the kiss the masked man took her luck and she took his.

That masked man was Jake (Chris Pine) who snuck into the party as a masked dancer to get the demo of his band McFly into the hands of the music mogul. Jake is a hard luck guy who has had nothing but bad things happen to him. After kissing Ashley he manages to save the life of the record mogul, get his band a record deal and just generally gets all he ever wanted.

Ashley then must find Jake, kiss him and get her luck back before she kills herself.

It's a cute premise, one that is right up the alley of director Donald Petrie who knows from cute premises as the director of both Miss Congeniality and How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days. Petrie knows how to pull the strings on a mainstream romance but he often fumbles with a too precious execution. Just My Luck is yet another example of Petrie's inability to follow through on a clever setup.

It's not all the directors fault. Petrie could not control star Lindsey Lohan's constant tabloid appearances that make the film feel at times like a parody of her real life. A star of Lohan's stature is often associated with a life like Ashley's where they get everything they want, are pampered at every turn, have money to burn and spend every night living it up. There is a part of all of us I'm sure who might enjoy watching a pampered star get their comeuppance as Ashley does in Just My Luck. However because this is a romance with an easy forecast ending the comeuppance is obviously short lived.

Add to that the fact that because the character of Ashley never belies selfishness, bitchiness or any of the other trappings of the privileged we can't take any kind nasty pleasure in watching her get what's coming to her. Because Ashley is not a bad person to begin with she has no real character arc for us to sympathize with. She goes from a good person with luck on her side to a good person with no luck and back again only happier and in love. The role has no depth.

Chris Pine is a young actor of few credits but real stardom in his future. The kid has great comic timing, a self effacing air and that indefinable quality that separates actors and stars. Chris Pine is a name to keep an eye in years to come.

Lindsey Lohan is also a star but one whose choice of roles is becoming more and more questionable. Last years Herbie Fully Loaded was a huge step backward from her terrific work in both Mean Girls and Freaky Friday. Herbie made her a little girl again, a role she chafed against to the detriment of the film's family friendly exterior.

Just My Luck showcases Lohan's best and worst qualities. Her skill with physical comedy is crossed with her limited dramatic range leaving the performance somewhere in between goofy teenage girl and grown up actress.

Many critics are recommending Just My Luck for teenagers but watching the film with my precocious 13 year old niece Alexa and some of her friends I found that even that target audience is not going to be satisfied with this under-cooked premise and shallow celebration of upper class life.

Movie Review: Welcome to Mooseport

Welcome to Mooseport (2004) 

Directed by Donald Petrie 

Written by Tom Schulman 

Starring Gene Hackman, Ray Romano, Marcia Gay Harden, Christine Baranski, Maura Tierney 

Release Date February 20th, 2004

Published February 19th, 2004 

The transition from TV to the big screen is never without its growing pains. Jennifer Aniston endured films like The Object of My Affection before finding success in The Good Girl. Helen Hunt endured Twister before her Oscar nominated role in As Good As It Gets. For comedian Ray Romano, his growing to big screen stardom begins by enduring the comedic misfire Welcome To Mooseport. On the bright side, at least he got to work with Gene Hackman.

In Mooseport, Romano plays a small-town handy man named Handy. Handy owns a hardware store where a group of local oddballs hang out. His girlfriend is a veterinarian named Sally (Maura Tierney), who he's romanced for six years without mentioning marriage. Handy has also just landed a very lucrative gig fixing the bathroom of the summer home of the now former President of the United States.

Gene Hackman is Monroe Eagle Cole, the most popular former President in history, having left office with an 80 percent approval rating. This is despite the fact that he was the first President to divorce while in office. The former first lady, played by Christine Baranski, took everything but his former title and his summer home in Mooseport.

At a party celebrating the President's arrival a group of town elders asks the President if he would like to run for mayor. The current mayor has passed on and there is apparently no one else running. The President was going to say no until he meets Sally who suggests it would be a good idea. In an attempt to impress her the President takes the gig. Unfortunately, there is one other person who has decided to run. Handy.

This sets up what should be an interesting comic idea. A small town guy running for mayor against the former leader of the free world is a rich comic idea. Throw in the President’s two aides Grace (Marcia Gay Harden) and Bullard (Fred Savage) and it gains even more potential. However, director Donald Petrie (How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, Miss Congeniality) is more interested in the romantic triangle between Romano, Tierney and Hackman and misses the endless opportunity for political satire.

Ray Romano is attempting to break loose from his TV persona and forge a career on the big screen. This role sadly will not help his case. Romano is stiff and often lifeless opposite a pro like Hackman who blows him off the screen. Hackman shows once again how great and underappreciated he is as a comic actor. He was the best part of the con-woman comedy Heartbreakers and he is by far the best thing in Welcome To Mooseport. Of the actors who have played the President of the United States onscreen, Hackman may be the most credible. Hackman has the persona, the gravitas that makes it very easy to believe he's the President. Not that it really matters in a film as dull and lifeless as this one.

Director Donald Petrie is another of those directors that delivers mediocre test screened comedies that studios love because they are inoffensive and more often than not cheap to produce. Welcome To Mooseport reeks of a film that was greenlit with the hope that it might be good but if it isn't, the studio can toss it on to the February schedule and watch it die a slow death before selling it on DVD and TV to cover the expenses. I hope they got their money's worth because that is apparently all that matters.

Movie Review How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days

How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days (2003) 

Directed by Donald Petrie 

Written by Kristen Buckley, Brian Regan, Burr Steers 

Starring Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey, Adam Goldberg, Michael Michele, Shalom Harlow 

Release Date February 7th, 2003 

Published February 6th, 2003 

In Almost Famous, Kate Hudson blew away audiences and critics with her beauty and talent. She had a charisma that melted the hearts of the audience and she and Billy Crudup had chemistry that melted the screen. Since that 1999 film, however, Hudson has struggled to recapture that star quality. Her latest attempt, the romantic comedy, How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days, is a step in the right direction, though she could have used a little better direction from director Donald Petrie.

Hudson is an advice columnist for a women's magazine, writing in-depth articles about how to get a date and how to shop for clothes. However, she longs to write about important things like politics and religion. When a friend loses another boyfriend, Andie gets the idea to write a column about all the things women do to screw up a relationship, an article that shares the title of the film. She and her friends descend upon a Manhattan bar to find the man who will provide the basis for her research.

At the bar is an advertising exec. Ben Barry, trying to save an account that his boss wants to give to another co-worker. The account is with a major diamond company, which his boss (Robert Klein) believes could be better served by two female execs (Michael Michele and Shalom Harlow). So Ben cuts a deal if he can prove he understands women he can keep the account. He can prove it by convincing a woman to fall in love with him in less than 10 days. Little does Ben know that his competitors know just the girl to choose, and Ben is introduced to Andie.

At first Andie is her cool sexy self, a package that a man who wasn't working on a bet couldn't resist. Their first date is all mind games with both Andie and Ben trying to gain the upper hand. After the first date hooks him, Andie sets her plan in motion. On the second date, she ruins Ben's time at a Knicks game. From there, she becomes the girlfriend from hell - clingy, and whiny and just generally abominable. Still, Ben is game; he refuses to give up. Not only because his professional life is riding on the relationship, but because there is still a little spark of the Andie he first met inside this frightening package.

The first half of the film is its strongest as these two likable, intelligent characters set the stage for their courtship, laying out the stakes and letting the games begin. On their first date as they jockey for position, I was reminded of a couple lines from an episode of Seinfeld where Elaine is talking about her boyfriend who doesn't play games and Jerry's appalled response "No games? But how do you know who's winning".

As fun as the first half of the film seems, there was something wrong throughout it. Some scenes, like a fight outside of a movie theater or an embarrassing scene where Andie decides to name Ben's penis, play like extended takes where the actors continued ad-libbing while waiting for the director to call cut. Then there is the director's odd choice in some scenes, especially outdoor scenes, to cover the actors in this gauzy haze that reminded me of those lame Lifetime movies. It's the kind of haze Barbara Streisand uses to make herself look younger on camera. Why director Donald Petrie would think a woman as beautiful as Kate Hudson would need the help of this Vaseline lens is beyond me.

The film's biggest problem though is its inevitability. Falling into that same romantic comedy trap, the film throws up obstacles that are easy to overcome except that if they were overcome intelligently there wouldn't be a film. If Andie and Ben would be honest with each other after it was obvious that the relationship had grown past what they had intended, we wouldn't have to put up with the big reveal scene that you get in every romantic comedy. The scene that calls for each character to accidentally learn about the other's deception and get hurt and run away from each other only to get over it in the next scene, then cry, then kiss and live happily ever after. Been there and done that.

Director Donald Petrie is a master of this crowd pleasing, easily digestible, claptrap. His resume includes Miss Congeniality, My Favorite Martian and Grumpy Old Men. He is a pro director who knows how to point the camera but needs to pick scripts that are more entertaining. Too often Petrie's films skate on the charm of his actors. Though he is blessed with a pair of wonderfully charismatic actors in McConaughey and Hudson, he gives his actors so little to do that they at times look a little lost and forced to fend for themselves.