Post by StevePulaski on Nov 22, 2011 18:59:08 GMT -5
Kevin Smith and Sam Jaegar.
Rating: ★½
Relatively early in the film Jennifer Garner asks the question "what kind of grown woman uses the phrase "F U?" I have the answer; the kind victim to a hokey, simplistic, dreary, and vinegary romantic comedy. Catch and Release is a bore and at just around two hours it trudges along in a desperate attempt to find both humor and audience sanctification. It seldomly achieves both.
Written by Susannah Grant, who also had the pen in hand when came time to write Academy Award Winner Erin Brokovich, Catch and Release's script feels labored and is so rarely funny for a film dubbed a "romantic comedy." It tells the story of Jennifer Garner's Gray who is left heartbroken after the death of her fiancee. Gray's friends Sam (Smith) and Dennis (Jaeger) try to cheer her up in her time of need, but Gray's other roommate, who was a close friend of her fiancee's, named Fritz (Olyphant) seems to be careless of what just happened.
Inevitably, you can see a romance building here, so why should I go on? The film doesn't break new ground and hardly tries anything smart or stylistic with the turf it already occupies. It's a sea of gray, no pun intended. It's virtually harmless and good dating fluff, but sometimes, that doesn't cut it. The story is already fine, if cliche, but why do so little when you could potentially work outside the lines.
I mentioned before the script is the film's problem and it truly is the most crucial flaw in Catch and Release. It seems assembled from used parts at the screenplay factor and character made from better films. But the film's highest laughs are scored from Kevin Smith, acting in I believe the first film he had no behind the scenes credit for. Smith, who is admittedly one of my favorite directors, does a fine but forgettable job at playing the best friend. He is essentially playing a PG-13 caricature of himself, but the film seems too preoccupied with what he is going to eat every scene rather than what he is going to say. Almost every frame he occupies he is chowing down on something. Though it's distracting, some sweet parts do come out of his character thus making him one of the most enjoyable of the bunch.
Timothy Olyphant, who I have to admit I really enjoyed in The Girl Next Door, is unforgivable miscast and seems to care less about how his role turns out. He isn't developed to the point of any likability, and his sleazy undertone doesn't help progress the believability of the storyline. Why would Gray jump back on the romance wagon when her fiancee was just killed with a guy who is lackadaisical and borderline creepy.
Also, if I could dig deeper, the film keeps saying and beating over our heads that Olyphant's Fritz is more than meets the eye. I couldn't find really much to him during the course of the film. He doesn't make a complete one-eighty in the storyline, and, frankly, doesn't work diligently with the character he has. He's a messy, unfinished, sleazy stereotype.
Catch and Release is fluff and I didn't think I'd be saying that about this film at all. I'm the person who hesitates to give a negative review to a romantic comedy. I loved Going the Distance and even enjoyed the remake of My Sassy Girl. It's surprising indeed, too, that Grant didn't ask Smith to assist her in the dialog process of the screenplay either. She's obviously familiar enough with his work to cast him in his first real acting role, and she probably is aware he directed a fantastic romantic comedy in his early days. So why doesn't he have any writing credits? That's a question I'd be pondering after watching the finished Catch and Release if I was Smith.
Starring: Jennifer Garner, Timothy Olyphant, Kevin Smith, Sam Jaeger, and Juliette Lewis. Directed by: Susannah Grant.