BEFORE: Freddie Prinze Jr. carries over from "Head Over Heels", and this third romance with him is really in a prime position, because whatever film comes after yesterday's disaster, it's going to probably look like the "Citizen Kane" of romance films by comparison. Anything's got to be better than that one, right?
It's funny how this works, just two weeks ago I was deep into the Bruce Willis/50 Cent action movie chain, and I was so burned out on action movies, they were just washing over me with little effect. Now I'll probably get burned out on romance films before Valentine's Day, in a week or so they'll just wash over me with little effect. But I just have to persist, put my head down and keep going, hoping things will improve somehow.
THE PLOT: A young man wins and loses the first serious love of his life. Al Connelly falls in love with the girl of his dreams, but after the summer she breaks up with him. As he tries to recover, Al goes to desperate measures.
AFTER: Well, this one kind of works because it stays within the scope of reality, there are no weirdly exploding toilets or Russian gangsters or people messing up priceless works of art in the name of restoration. No sex with dogs, either, so that's a plus - this film's situations feel like they are based on things that could actually happen, like pregnancy scares or being an extra in a porn movie's crowd scenes, or having a sexual fantasy about somebody who isn't your regular partner. This all could be based on specific actual events.
Two people meet at a college bar, he's a sophomore and she's a freshman, and they bond over what song to play on the jukebox, and then start dating, and three months later, they're deep in love. The only thing that seems unrealistic is the way they both talk to the camera, as if they're being interviewed about their relationship - it's a common framing device, but it also could happen, sometimes they make documentaries where they ask people about their relationships, right? Then the omniscient universal camera takes over and we flash back to see those things taking place when they happened. It's still not "real", but it's a bit more real than four models living together for free and just by coincidence having an apartment with a view of another character's apartment, and he never ever closes the blinds.
These characters eat a lot of cake together, and never gain any weight, sure, that's a bit unrealistic but hey, it's still a movie. Al's studying liberal arts at this unnamed NYC college, but he wants to pursue a career as a chef specializing in French cuisine and Imogen is an art student (just like Laney in "She's All That") and they get closer together and have the infamous "birthday sex" after spending a private night in an art gallery. But things start to fall apart when Al keeps his promise to be an extra in a movie crowd scene, and Imogen wonders why he'd rather do that than spend the evening with her. (Because it's not ALL about you, honey, that's why...) After spending a summer in France, though, Imogen comes back and things between her and Al are different somehow. Her cousin in France asked if she would be getting married soon, and that set off a whole thing, bringing her fears about being a mother to the surface. If they don't learn to talk about things like this, this relationship seems doomed and they don't even realize it.
The tables get turned later when Imogen agrees to design an album cover for a male friend, and Al wonders if she's getting too close to that guy - but petty jealousy at this point will only push her closer to that other person, trust me on this one. Meanwhile, Al's father, a famous TV chef, wants to do a reality show with him, where they tour the country together and visit random regular people to improve their cooking. He wants it to be like "Cops" (which must have been the most popular TV show of all in the year 2000, yeah, that sounds about right) but he wasn't that wrong - this proposed show sounds a bit like "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives", where Guy Fieri tours the country and often has his son with him, visiting restaurants. But this opportunity is yet another thing that seems to be driving the couple apart. A car accident after a picnic in the county seems to be the final sign that things are ending, but sometimes isn't an accident just an accident? Not everything needs to be a metaphor...
Oh, right, the pregnancy scare. That's probably the real reason for the break-up, even though Al is very supportive and buys the home test kit, it's something Imogen has to do herself, it's her issue. Hey, not every woman's cut out to be a mother, it's OK especially if that whole child thing feels like it's more than that person can handle. There are already plenty of people in the world, one less isn't going to make much difference. You've got to take care of yourself first before you can take care of another human, anyway. But Imogen deals with the situation by cheating on Al and then moving to San Francisco - that's one way to go, I guess. Al is suddenly a free-wheeling bachelor again, he explores a new relationship but that fizzles out, too. He's got nothing to do but get back in touch with his friends and go bar-hopping for a while. But before long he's hitting the really hard stuff, which turns out to be Imogen's brand of shampoo - and this is not a recommended way to deal with heartbreak.
Eventually Imogen returns from San Francisco where she'd carved out a career as an artist illustrating book covers. Since they've both grown as people since the break-up (OK, well, ONE of them has...) they decide to explore giving it another try. But it means making changes, forgiving each other, and there's no guarantee it's all going to work out, but it seems to be worth a shot. They can't really start over from scratch, but if that's what they want to tell themselves in order to be happy, I'm OK with it. Just one little NITPICK POINT, if Imogen's flight back to S.F. is really in two hours, she should ALREADY be on the way to the airport. In New York, no matter where you are, it takes one hour MINIMUM to get to an airport, no matter how you get there, and they say you should arrive at least two hours before your flight. I like to leave the house three or four hours before take-off, just to be on the safe side.
Also starring Julia Stiles (last seen in "Hustlers"), Selma Blair (last heard in "Scream 2"), Shawn Hatosy (last seen in "Alpha Dog"), Zak Orth (last seen in "Music and Lyrics"), Ashton Kutcher (last seen in "Killers"), Rosario Dawson (last seen in "Fire with Fire"), Henry Winkler (last seen in "The French Dispatch"), Lucie Arnaz (last seen in "Robert Klein Still Can't Stop His Leg"), Lauren German, Zay Harding, Amanda Barfield, Chloe Hunter, Granger Green, Jed Rhein, Joseff Stevenson, Bradley Pierce (last seen in "The Borrowers" (1997)), Lola Glaudini (last seen in "Jack Goes Boating"), Mary Wigmore (last seen in "Chuck & Buck"), Alexia Landeau (last seen in "Kicking and Screaming"), Jennifer Albano, Chris Desmond, Susan Blommaert (last seen in "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum"), Frank Wood (last seen in "In America"), Joanna P. Adler (last seen in "An American Pickle"), Mark Blum (last seen in "Shattered Glass"), with cameos from Adam Carolla (last seen in "Still Waiting..."), Jimmy Kimmel (last seen in "The Last Blockbuster").
RATING: 5 out of 10 Revolutionary War soldiers (in a porn movie?)
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