The Film Junkie

This is a sweet enough little film about single life in your 40’s.  Diane Lane and John Cusack are reliably charming as two divorces trying to find their way to one another.  Cusack looks a little less lean and mean than he has in recent years, but he has not lost any of that classic personality and charm that he has been wooing us with since ‘Say Anything’.

Yet this film is carried by Lane, a more than capable actress who gives us a woman who is on the verge of either a nervous breakdown or finding her one true love.  She has none of the annoying tics of, say, Meg Ryan, instead she is a real and mature woman.

The supporting players of Christopher Plummer (can we say slumming it?), Stockard Channing (see previous note), Elizabeth Perkins ( I miss ‘Weeds’) and Dermot Mulroney (damn, he just gets sexier as he gets greyer, doesn’t he?) are all good in their small roles. 

However the fault of this film is a meandering and weirdly constructed plot where Lane goes from dating two men to none, to the wrong one, back to none again, to begging, etc.  It is terribly frustrating to see this well drawn character make choices that are so obviously wrong.  I just didn’t buy that she would give up so easy and then make a big silly realization.

It is a good idea for a film (with a bad title), but it could have been better.

Grade: B-

Every critic I read was telling me I would hate this movie, but when I finally gave it a shot, I found that I actually kinda liked this sweet little movie.

It follows Kat (Debra Messing) a single airline employee who hires Nick (Dermot Mulroney), a male escort, to be her date to her sister’s wedding.  Kat learns a lot about herself and her faults from Nick, while Nick learns that maybe a woman could get under his skin.

The film is a bit short, I would have liked to see more of who Nick is and where he is coming from and the adversity they have to overcome is a little watered down.  However the chemistry between Messing and Mulroney is very strong. 

It is nice to see Messing play a shy woman, I am so used to her as Grace from ‘Will & Grace’, but here she is vulnerable without being crazed, a nice change.

Amy Adams is also worth mentioning for her role as Kat’s sister who everyone puts on a pedestal.  She lets us under the veneer for just a moment, but it is a great glimpse.

Also, British actress Sarah Parish is the hilarious highlight of the film as Kat and Amy’s cousin, TJ.  She never lets it get too serious.

Grade: B+