Movie Review 10 Things I Hate About You

10 Things I Hate About You (1999) 

Directed by Gil Junger

Written by Karen McCullah, Kirsten Smith 

Starring Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Larisa Oleynik

Release Date March 31st, 1999 

Published March 5th, 2023 

It is a genuine effort that I have to make to like 10 Things I Hate About You. It's, honestly, a chore. I want to love this movie. I know that I did love it when it was released in 1999. But, I was also a relatively young film critic with a serious crush on Julia Stiles and a desire to be Heath Ledger. To say my objectivity was compromised would be very fair. Watching it again as the classic for the March 6th, 2023, episode of the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review Podcast, the chore of trying to be someone who likes 10 Things I Hate About You really presented itself. 

10 Things I Hate About You stars Julia Stiles as Kat Stratford. Kat is the 'Shrew' who must be 'Tamed' in the Shakespearean sense, the film is a loose adaptation of the Bard's Taming of the Shrew and the filmmakers really, really, want you to remember that. Awkward dialogue exchanges and obvious name conventions make the forced effort to underline Shakespeare thuddingly obvious if you aren't willing yourself to ignore the awkwardness. 

Kat has developed a reputation for beating up the boys at her High School. She refuses to date anyone as she sees the High School boys as beneath her. The story of 10 Things I Hate About You kicks in when a pair of boys begin to vie for the affection of Kat's sister, Bianca (Larisa Oleynik). When Bianca approaches her father for permission to date he decides that Bianca can date only when her sister decides to date. Knowing Kat, that may not happen until she leaves for college. 

Armed with this information from Bianca, nice guy Cameron (Joseph Gordon Levitt) and High School bad boy Joey Donner (Andrew Keegan), launch a plan. They will pay someone to seduce Kat into dating. After After being turned down by a series of guys who put over Kat's reputation as a ballbuster of a most literal sort, the schemers settle on Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger), a student with a reputation of his own. It's rumored that Patrick has been to jail, he's spent time in a mental institution and, he ate an entire duck. 

If anyone is crazy enough to try and date Kat Stratford, it's Patrick Verona. The plan works but, of course, Patrick falls for Kat and when Joey figures out that Cameron is more likely to get a date with Bianca than he is, the plan goes awry in the most obviously expected fashion. There truly is no mystery or even a shred of suspense to this plot. Kat is going to find out that Patrick was paid to date her and she's going to be hurt by that. How the movie resolves that plot is deeply unsatisfying despite a strong, tearful effort by a very game Julia Stiles. 

Read the full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review: Bourne Ultimatum

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

Directed by Paul Greengrass

Written by Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns, George Nolfi

Starring Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, David Straithairn, Scott Glenn, Albert Finney, Joan Allen

Release Date August 3rd, 2007 

Published August 3rd, 2007

Though Daniel Craig has brought some of the cool back to the James Bond franchise, most I'm sure will agree that the spy franchise of this decade is not Bond but Bourne, Jason Bourne. The Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and now Bourne Ultimatum are pulse pounding, non-stop thrill rides where big time action meets grand drama and suspense to create a near masterpiece of genre fiction.

When last we left Jason Bourne he was getting revenge for the murder of his girlfriend and just beginning his determined search for his past. Now in Bourne Ultimatum, Jason is after his past again. He wants desperately to know how he became a globetrotting assassin, who he killed, why did he kill them and who told him to do it.

What this information will do for him is Jason Bourne's private business. Matt Damon and his poker face keep things close to the vest. That is fine with us in the audience because plot is not the point of the Bourne movies. Like Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy before it, The Bourne Ultimatum is about non-stop propulsive action of the most skilled and determined kind.

Director Paul Greengrass is a master of the big action scene; as he demonstrated with the jaw dropping Russian car chase scene in Bourne Supremacy. In Bourne Ultimatum, Greengrass tops himself with a fight scene set in the row houses of Tangiers that must be seen to be believed. The fight between Bourne and a man sent to kill him is so fast paced, up close and quickly cut that audience members will feel as if they need to duck some of the punches that fly.

As the first two films have been set apart by exceptional car chases, The Bourne Ultimatum too has a killer car chase. Set on the streets of New York this tightly paced, high speed ride has our hero driving a stolen police cruiser chased by CIA spooks and one determined assassin who is the last line of defense between Bourne and his past. How this scene plays out is a perfect microcosm of the complex action of this terrific film series.

As Bond has had some memorable villains, Jason Bourne can lay claim to some of the finest character actors ever in the business as his top adversaries. In Bourne Identity it was Oscar nominee Chris Cooper and Brian Cox as Bourne's former controllers turned pursuers. In Bourne Supremacy Oscar nominee Joan Allen joined the returning Cox as CIA Bourne chasers.

Now in Bourne Ultimatum add two more Oscar nominees to the list. David Straithairn plays the head of CIA black ops who hopes to keep Jason Bourne from exposing some of the illegal activities of his clandestine enclave of the CIA. Also joining team Bourne in Bourne Ultimatum is Oscar nominee Sir Albert Finney as a man with up close and personal knowlege of Jason Bourne's true identity.

With a cast like this; story depth is built into the margins; freeing director Paul Greengrass, himself a recent Oscar nominee for United 93, to focus on making the action kick as much ass as possible. He satisfies action fans with some serious ass kicking, car chases and edge of your seat suspense of the kind that sets the Bourne franchise apart from other classic franchises.

Matt Damon has been adamant that The Bourne Ultimatum will be his last Bourne film. Whether the franchise will continue without its star seems without question. What a shame that will be. Damon is Jason Bourne and it's unlikely any other actor can bring the same fierce intensity and integrity to this role that Damon has. Like Connery with the original Bond or Michael Keaton's Batman, Damon's Jason Bourne is definitive.

The Bourne series will not be the same without him. For now at least, bask in the action glory that is The Bourne Ultimatum, the perfect kickass coda for one of the best action franchises of all time.

Movie Review The Bourne Supremacy

The Bourne Supremacy (2004) 

Directed by Paul Greengrass

Written by Tony Gilroy

Starring Matt Damon, Brian Cox, Franke Potente, Julia Stiles, Karl Urban, Joan Allen 

Release Date July 23rd, 2004 

Published July 22nd, 2004 

What I have always loved about action movies, or more specifically spy movies, is the idea that while we live our everyday mundane lives, secret forces are out there creating and covering up chaos. Just think of all those times the world has been in peril or (at least the lives of normal civilians like ourselves) and we have never known it. 

We have wandered into city squares unaware that they are teeming with secret agents and surrounded by SWAT team snipers. What about all of those times you have been cut off by some nut in traffic unaware that he is fleeing for his life with the fate of the nation hanging in the balance.  The Bourne Supremacy doesn’t get caught up with saving the world but it does have a few of those moments where everyday civilians unknowingly cross paths with danger -- all of it cleverly staged and playing into a smart, action-packed plot, heavy on spycraft and low on dialogue. 

Matt Damon returns as Jason Bourne the amnesiac hero of 2002’s The Bourne Identity. As we rejoin Jason Bourne, he is hiding out in India with his on the lam girlfriend Marie (Franke Potente) whom he kidnapped and fell in love with in the first film. The couple has an idyllic life of leisure aside from Jason’s occasional flashes of memories that he can’t fully recover. Jason knows he did something horrible but can’t remember what it is.

Not surprisingly, his memory will become important as Jason is drawn back into the spy game by the arrival of an assassin (Karl Urban) who has just framed Jason for murder in Munich, Germany, and has now come to India to tie up his loose ends. Jason doesn’t know about the Munich setup; he assumes the CIA has resumed pursuit of him despite his warning of reprisal.

Joan Allen is Pamela Landy, CIA field director, who stumbles on to Bourne through the assassin’s setup in Munich. Landy was in Munich when two of her CIA squad were killed and the evidence points to Bourne. Searching for Bourne leads her to Bourne’s former boss Ward Abbott (Brian Cox) who has something big to hide. Whether it’s criminal or merely a CIA operation is one of many tantalizing mysteries. From the outset, the only character to trust is Bourne; everyone else is suspect. 

Director Paul Greengrass’s previous film was the visceral pseudo-documentary Bloody Sunday about terrorist strife in Ireland. That film employed a grainy look that dated the film to its 1980s setting. There is no need for such tricks in this film but that does not preclude Greengrass from being innovative with the film’s look. Its color palette, sun-soaked yellows in India, subtle grays and cold exteriors in Europe follow closely the film’s tone. 

The action scenes are where The Bourne Supremacy sets itself apart from other action movies. Especially good is a hand-to-hand fight scene that Greengrass shot with a handheld camera that follows the action much like Michael Mann’s camera in the boxing ring in Ali, the difference being that Mann shot that on Digital and Greengrass does this on film. 

The Bourne Supremacy also has one of the best chase scenes ever. This is on par with John Frankenheimer’s Ronin and William Friedkin’s The French Connection, with Bourne chased by Urban’s unknown assassin and a number of Russian police. Bourne is driving with one arm after being shot and while being chased he must stop the bleeding. And did I mention the car is a stick shift.

The most essential element of The Bourne Supremacy is the performance of Damon. This film, like its progenitor, turns on whether or not Damon is a believable action hero and once again Damon is a revelation. Damon brings an actor’s chops to a role that most actors throw away, hoping the special effects will carry them. He has the serious manner of Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible but with a grittier, more realistic approach.

Though I would like stronger dialogue and the plot could stand to be a little more fleshed out, there is very little to complain about. Screenwriter Tony Gilroy has an efficient writing style reminiscent of David Mamet’s Spartan but with less wit and far fewer four-letter words. It resembles Mamet in efficiency, if not wordiness, both films don't writers are not wasting time. 

The Bourne Supremacy, like The Bourne Identity, is based on a novel by the late Robert Ludlum who has many more Bourne thrillers already on bookshelves guaranteeing more of this smart, efficient spy thriller. Hopefully the next film is as kinetic and inventive as The Bourne Supremacy is; a terrific summer action movie.

Movie Review The Business of Strangers

The Business of Strangers (2001) 

Directed by Patrick Stettner

Written by Patrick Stettner

Starring Stockard Channing, Julia Stiles, Fred Weller

Release Date December 7th, 2001 

Published January 14th, 2002

I recently wrote of how there are so few good roles for women in Hollywood films. In the indie film The Business of Strangers, there are two excellent female characters. Two fantastic actresses brilliantly bring both to life and both are botched by a first time writer-director who really didn't know what he had.

The film stars Stockard Channing as Julie, vice president of a software company from which she may or may not be getting fired. As she is to make a presentation to potential clients, Julie's temporary assistant shows up late and the deal is blown. The temp is a 24-year old Dartmouth grad named Paula (Julia Stiles) who doesn't seem all that fazed by her screw up, that is until Julie fires her on the spot. Thus beginning an unusual confrontation between two strong willed people.

Julie, now even more concerned with losing her job, has dinner with a corporate job hunter named Nick (Fred Weller). Julie soon finds her job is more than safe and has no need for Nick. Circumstances bring the three characters back together in Julie's massive hotel suite with the women playing Nick and each other, testing limits of psychology and sexuality.

The film has the feel and tone of Richard Linklater's superior indie Tape, though this film is from the female perspective. A good idea but one that writer-director Patrick Stettner abandons in favor of a confusing and somewhat convoluted revenge plot. The Nick character is never allowed to develop and half way through the film you're left wondering why we are being treated to flashes of him waiting for a plane that never comes. The character exists solely to fill in as a plot focal point after Stettner ran out of barbed dialogue for his two leads.

The two leads, Channing and Stiles, are spectacular. They have excellent chemistry and if The Business Of Strangers had been allowed to focus on just the two of them then it might have been a more interesting story, albeit one better suited to the stage than the screen.

I'll say this for Stettner, his first full-length script is an ambitious one, filled with psychosexual head games on par with Neil Labute. What Stettner lacks is an interesting narrative, a story that lets the audience in on the characters motivations. You don't have to lead the audience like a dog on a leash, but the characters need to have some reason to be doing what it is they are doing. Channing and Stiles rock, but the story does their performances a disservice and keeps the film as a whole from meeting its potential.

Movie Review Hustlers

Hustlers (2019) 

Directed by Lorene Scafaria 

Written by Lorene Scafaria 

Starring Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Lizzo, Cardi B 

Release Date September 13th, 2019

Published September 12th, 2019 

On the one hand, the strippers of the new movie Hustlers are criminals, unquestionably, they are criminals. However, it’s fair to also state that they are not the villains of this movie either. Hustlers operate in a most amazing gray area where we are able to sympathize with criminals and lustily boo the victims who are stand-ins for the real criminals who tanked the American economy in 2007 amid the housing crisis. 

Hustlers capitalizes on some of the tastiest schadenfreude you can imagine by positing a story wherein: too rich for their own good Wall Street criminals get taken for thousands of dollars of the money they stole from others by those who would otherwise be on the other end of the economic spectrum, a diverse collection of women and specifically single mothers in J-Lo and Constance Wu’s characters. 

It’s hard not to take pleasure in watching these skeevy, criminal pigs get taken by the very people they intend to victimize with their ill-gotten gains. It’s not justice that would be found in creating a just and fair economic system free from the kind of thumb on the scale manipulation that these men have championed, but it’s a tasty bit of minor karmic retribution that feels good, like a cookie for the soul. 

Constance Wu stars in Hustlers as Dorothy or, on stage, Destinee. Dorothy is struggling to get by as one of the new girls at a high roller strip club in New York City. Her commute is barely worth the pittance in tips she walks away with after management and the rest of the support staff take their cut. Then, Dorothy meets the club’s Queen Bee, Ramona Vega (Jennifer Lopez). Ramona has the place wired to the point where she merely has to point her prominent backside in any direction and the room rains with money. 

Dorothy dreams of being like Ramona and after introducing herself, the two become inseparable. Ramona takes Dorothy under her wing, they perform together, and they begin making incredible amounts of money together. Dorothy and Ramona start living an extravagant life off of the money tossed at their feet by Wall Street jerks for whom such money is meaningless compared to the horrific lies they tell to earn it. 

Then, the housing crisis hit in 2008 and the gravy train came to a screeching halt. The club, once wall to wall with Wall Street money, is now nearly empty. Dorothy leaves to have a baby and get married, only to find her baby daddy is nearly as worthless as the Wall Street bros she once danced for and both she and Ramona are on the streets trying to find jobs in a real world that doesn’t exactly fit their very specific skill set. 

Then, Ramona hits on a plan: what if there were a way to get what’s left of the high rollers back to the club? Her idea? High end, designer drugs that ease the inhibitions and open the high rollers to suggestions such as allowing a stripper to run your credit card unmonitored. Using her vast connections, Ramona, with Dorothy in tow, recruits two other struggling dancers, played by Lily Reinhart and Keke Palmer, to drug rich men, carry them to the club, take their credit cards to the limit and send them home with the bill. 

That’s the premise of Hustlers but the payoff you will have to see for yourself. It’s not the destination that really matters in Hustlers, it’s the execution and the execution of Hustlers is top notch. Writer-director Lorene Scafaria has just the right touch for this material, lightly comic at times, self-serious when necessary, with just the right mix of dark comedy, sex and drama. It’s not a perfect movie, but it gets a strong point across. 

Jennifer Lopez has not been this great in a movie in years. Playing the heavy support to Constance Wu’s more meaty lead role, Lopez’s megawatt star power hasn’t been this notable since her pre-Gigli, pre-Jersey Girl, Jenny from the Block days. It’s refreshing to see Lopez so confident and relaxed on screen after suffering through years of her downplaying her remarkable beauty and presence in forgettable romantic comedies. 

Constance Wu, if she can get out from under her own ego,- note her tantrum over her TV show not being canceled and ugly demands on her place on the Hustlers promotional material- will be a big star one day. She has dramatic chops that can turn quickly and wittily comic. She’s a natural screen presence and quite a beauty when she gets out from under a bad wig. She’s overshadowed plenty by Lopez but few actresses would not be. That said, she doesn’t get lost in the glare of Lopez’s star power and proves herself as the dramatic lynchpin of this incredible and well told story. 

Hustlers is better than I expected from a movie that, in the wrong hands, could have been merely titillating. Instead, Hustlers is weighty, satirical, dramatic and quite funny, often within the range of a single scene. Don’t believe me? See Hustlers and watch the Usher Raymond cameo and you will get what I am saying about the remarkable range of this diverse and exciting movie. Hustlers is the great surprise at the movies in 2019.

Movie Review: A Guy Thing

A Guy Thing (2002) 

Directed by Chris Koch 

Written by Greg Glienna 

Starring Jason Lee, Julia Stiles, James Brolin, Selma Blair, Shawn Hatosy 

Release Date January 17th, 2002 

Published January 16th, 2002 

Recently, I have been reading about the Auteur Theory, an idea first championed by European filmmakers in the 1960's which caught on here in the States through the writings of critic Andrew Sarris. The theory postulates that the director is the creative force in the movie-making process; that the script is nothing until the director gives it light and imagery. Essentially, a director gives life to a script. According to this theory, a true auteur/filmmaker can take a lifeless, innocuous script and pair it with awe-inspiring imagery and performance to create a masterpiece. After seeing the film A Guy Thing, it's safe to say director Chris Koch is no auteur, as he takes a lifeless and innocuous script and makes a lifeless, innocuous film.

Jason Lee stars as Paul Morse, a soon-to-be-married schlep who isn't enjoying his bachelor party. Not wanting to take part in the debauchery, Paul allows his best man (played by Shawn Hatosy) to pretend he is the groom-to-be so the strippers will give him their full attention. One of the strippers is Becky, played by Julia Stiles, and she is awful at her job. Becky is not a good dancer and really doesn't care. She takes an immediate liking to Paul, not knowing that he is the groom.

The next morning, Paul awakens to a phone call from his mother-in-law, informing him that his wife-to-be is on her way to his apartment. This would not be a problem except that Becky is in Paul's bed. This encounter leads to a series of wacky episodes involving mistaken identities, crazed ex-boyfriends and various misunderstandings that are staples of the romantic comedy genre. A Guy Thing isn't a bad film. It has moments that are honestly funny; however, it is also clichéd and too often dull. Lee, one of my favorite actors, mugs and preens and does everything he can with the limited material he is given. Stiles remains one of the most appealing actresses of her generation as she makes her way through the film on her wits and charm, barely sidestepping the script's many pitfalls.

The main problem with the film is Koch and his inability to bring life to the film. Almost any director can bring a literal translation of a script to the screen, but it takes an artist to make that lifeless script a film. Even if that script has so little originality can, with the steady hand and eye of a great director, can be entertaining. Koch, however, directs A Guy Thing with a simple point-and-shoot style that takes the scripted page and translates it directly on to the screen. If you are going to do that, you may as well film the actors simply reading the script.

Koch is not a bad director. He is technically sound. He simply needs to develop a style of his own. Koch needs to learn to trust his own instincts instead of taking a script from the producers and translating it directly to the screen with no style or substance.

Movie Review The Omen (2006)

The Omen (2006) 

Directed by John Moore 

Written by David Seitzer 

Starring Julia Stiles, Liev Schreiber, Mia Farrow, David Thewlis, Michael Gambon 

Release Date June 6th, 2006 

Published June 5th, 2006 

666 is the number of the beast. It's also the number hiding somewhere on the body of five year old Damien Thorn. You see, Damien is not in fact the son of Robert and Katherine Thorn, played by Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles. On the day his son was to be born Robert Thorn arrived at a religious hospital in Rome to find his son had died at birth. The doctors waited till Robert arrived before telling his wife Catherine (Julia Stiles). There was however a secondary motive to not telling her. A small child was born simultaneously in the hospital to a mother who died while giving birth.

The priest in charge of the hospital makes a deal with Robert to adopt this child in secret and raise him as his own. If all of this sounds rather convenient, you have no idea how right you are. Cut to five years later and young Damien is a slightly creepy looking five year old with no outwardly sinister ambitions until his birthday. At the party Damien's nanny suddenly decides to hang herself in front of the entire crowd of children and parents. Only young Damien seems unaffected by this scene.

Following this disturbing event Robert is visited by a crazed priest, Father Brennen (Pete Postlethwaite). Babbling about how Robert needs to accept Christ as his savior, Father Brennen wishes to explain to Robert that his child Damien is actually the son of the devil. Upon Father Brennen's ghastly death a photographer (David Thewlis) makes a terrifying discovery that will lead he and Robert across the globe to uncover his sons true nature. Meanwhile young Damien and his new nanny Mrs. Baylock (Mia Farrow) set there sights on poor Katherine.

At first The Omen 2006 is a slavishly devoted retelling of the original story. However, director John Moore eventually finds his own way of making The Omen his. Through the use of some exquisite art direction, location shooting and cinematography, The Omen develops a steadily chilling atmosphere that grows exponentially more shocking and genuinely scary as the movie progresses.

John Moore's first film was a forgettable remake of the Jimmy Stewart flick Flight Of The Phoenix. That film never gave any indication that Moore had this kind of directorial talent. His eye for visual splendor in The Omen is exquisite here, where it was desperately muted in Flight of the Phoenix. Moore draws genuine scares not from the usual bait and switch histrionics of cats leaping from the shadows and music stabs but from crafting atmosphere and artful misdirection.

The film evokes the original The Omen with stars Schreiber and Stiles bringing echoes of Gregory Peck and Remick to live but never surpassing the legends from the original. Only Mia Farrow as Mrs. Baylock truly stands apart from the original film. That is mostly because of the oddity of her casting. Ms. Farrow is well known as the mother of Satan's child in 1969's Rosemary's Baby. Her casting in The Omen is a terrific inside joke for horror fans.

Because so little is changed from the original The Omen is a directorial revelation. Only John Moore's direction provides the opportunity for updating this material and that is a challenge that Moore meets and surpasses. The Omen 2006 is a visual horror nightmare that improves on familiar material with directorial flourish worthy of masters class. I never would have expected this from John Moore but after The Omen I cannot wait to see what he could do with original material.

Movie Review: The Prince and Me

The Prince and Me (2004)

Directed by Martha Coolidge 

Written by Jack Amiel, Michael Begler, Katherine Fugate 

Starring Julia Stiles, Luke Mably, Ben Miller, James Fox, Miranda Richardson

Release date April 2nd, 2004

Published April 1st, 2004 

I find it weirdly fascinating that to this day the film that so many women I know believe is the ultimate romantic fantasy is Pretty Woman. Pretty Woman is an awful movie about a sex worker who gets picked out of obscurity by a rich guy and the whole thing is played like the ultimate romantic fantasy, as of all sex workers are just one super rich guy from no longer having to live and work in the streets. This is the height of romantic fantasy for some? 

For a more lighthearted romantic fantasy with grounding in something much more wholesome than the sex trade, see The Prince and Me with Julia Stiles. It’s a classic romantic fantasy about the commoner who marries a prince. While it lacks Julia Roberts’ blazing charisma, it too has its charms.

Julia Stiles stars in The Prince and Me as Paige Morgan, a Wisconsin University senior with plans for post-graduate education at Johns Hopkins medical school. She refuses to be distracted by anything, especially a boyfriend. This is, of course, when she meets Eddie (Luke Mably), a handsome foreigner who immediately gets on her nerves. Of course they are forced together as lab partners in an important class and Eddie gets a job on campus at the same bar where Paige works.

This is your typical forced romantic setup except that Eddie also happens to be Prince Edward of Denmark. He does not tell Paige about his royal heritage, even after she is kind enough to bring him to her home for Thanksgiving dinner. Paige lives on a dairy farm, which not surprisingly this gives Eddie a number of opportunities to do the kind of fish out of water comedy bits that are the bread and butter of hack screenwriting.

I will give them credit for one inspired bit of Wisconsin humor, watching Eddie compete in a lawn mower race and then brawl with locals makes for a couple of unexpectedly funny scenes. I do have a few questions about this sequence however. It’s Thanksgiving in Wisconsin and it’s sunny and 60 degrees? I seriously doubt that.

Eventually Paige will find out Eddie is actually Prince Edward and various other romantic complications will all lead up to the grand romantic gesture and lets not kid ourselves, it’s no spoiler to say this will have a happy ending. Still, how it gets there is a sweet, often charming story. Stiles and Mably have good chemistry and make a lovely couple. My only quibble is that they’re not very funny. While I liked the actors, both are rather wooden and neither is a great comedic presence.

Director Martha Coolidge is more than capable behind the camera and at times you can see some flares of style. There is an ephemeral look to some of the romantic scenes and like many romantic fantasies she uses a little of that “Barbara Walters lighting” that gives everything a soft edge. Nothing new, but very comfortable and relaxing. There isn’t much for a director to do with a script that is pretty much on auto pilot on it’s way to happily ever after.

The film’s biggest problem is it’s ending. We get what we expect from romantic fantasies but the film tries to get clever about it and ends ups making the characters look very stupid. A simple romantic complication that could have been summed up in two or three lines of dialogue is instead dragged out over another five minutes screen-time. At 110 minutes, the film is way too long and the extended ending makes it feel even longer.

Nevertheless, as romantic fantasies go, I would prefer my daughter (if I had one) to have this fantasy over Pretty Woman any day. It’s charming and sweet with a pair of actors that are destined for greater things.