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Tag Archives: romcom
New On DVD: Crazy, Stupid, Love
Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, is a romantic comedy in which all the principle actors play upon their strengths. Just like in The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005), Steve Carell is once again a clueless schmuck in need of a makeover. He also reprises his Date Night (2010) persona as a suburban husband and father who needs to spice up his marriage. There are also numerous similarities to his Michael Scott character in The Office, with inappropriate outbursts of personal information and an overall embarrassing demeanor. However, just as in all the above-mentioned film and TV roles, Carell is completely loveable and we want to see his character succeed.
Julianne Moore’s role as Emily is also similar to those she has played before. She’s unhappy in her marriage to the point of infidelity just like Jules in The Kids are All Right (2010), and on the verge of an emotional breakdown similar to her role in Magnolia (1999). In both films and in this one, her tears seem raw and believable. She’s broody and bored like Charley in A Single Man (2009), and her seemingly perfect married life is on the brink of crumbling just like that of her character Cathy Whitaker in Far From Heaven (2002).
Ryan Gosling plays his usual heartthrob self and Emma Stone’s character is honest and relatable with a comedic flair similar to her role as Olive in Easy A (2010). This movie also welcomes the up and coming star Analeigh Tipton as the teenage babysitter with an unquenchable crush. She will be familiar to anyone who watches America’s Next Top Model, as she made it to the top three of Cycle 11, only to be let go with the advice to become an actress, which this movie proves she has done quite successfully.
While slow in spots, the surprise twist at the end of Crazy, Stupid, Love is well worth the wait. The stars may play up their strengths, but the result of that foresight is a very enjoyable love story.
Photo © vgstudio – Fotolia.com
Tagged Crazy, DVD, Julianne Moore, Love, romantic comedies, romcom, Steve Carell, Stupid
New On DVD: Something Borrowed
Something Borrowed (2011), directed by Luke Greenfield, definitely follows the traditional romantic comedy plotline, but it does so in a fresh way, due to its superb cast and well-crafted dialogue. Like many other romantic comedies, it has secrets and betrayals, an annoying male foil used to break the tension, and even a synchronized dance sequence. But for any reserved, somewhat shy brunette with a crush, this is a movie to buy and watch time and again.
It’s hard to imagine Ginnifer Goodwin playing the “frumpy one.” Even in a white collared shirt, a crewneck, and big glasses, she still looks radiant. Though perhaps her striking beauty isn’t contradictory to her role as the protagonist, Rachel. After all, even the most beautiful women aren’t always aware of their own appeal.
What Goodwin lacks in actual frumpiness, she makes up for in acting ability and her capacity to make the audience love her. Fans have followed her throughout her career in movies like Mona Lisa Smile (2003), A Single Man (2009), and in her first major lead role in He’s Just Not That Into You (2009). She has also dazzled us as third wife Margene Heffmen in the HBO series Big Love.
Aside from a recurring role on 90210, Colin Egglesfield, who plays the romantic lead Dex, is relatively unknown. With looks that are half Tom Cruise, half Clark Kent, we’re sure to see more of Egglesfield in theaters. John Krasinski of The Office plays his usual charming character that makes every romantic comedy better.
Something Borrowed also welcomed newcomer Ashley Williams, best known as the cupcake girlfriend on How I Met Your Mother. While she performs well as a kooky foil herself, here’s hoping that her next Hollywood role will put her back into a more likeable character where she is able to look as pretty and confident as she does on HIMYM.
Kate Hudson co-stars with Goodwin as her best friend and archrival, and she does so with the precision that she always brings to her roles. For anyone who found her a little too perfect to relate to in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), seeing Goodwin’s character overshine is bound to give the viewer a bit of self-satisfactory pleasure. After all, blonds can’t always have more fun.
Photo © jamdesign – Fotolia.com
Romantic Comedies With Unexpected Endings
500 Days of Summer (2009)
This movie starts off as almost all romantic comedies do. A man and woman meet, and one likes the other but the other isn’t sure. In time they begin a romantic connection that comes to a halt at a major crisis point. What makes this movie different—aside from its circular timeline and the fact that the stereotypical gender roles are reversed—is that this crisis point alters the storyline in a way that most other films do not. Will Tom (Joseph Gordon Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) find their happily ever after? Watch the movie to find out.
The Breakup (2006)
The love story between Brooke (Jennifer Aniston) and Gary (Vince Vaughn) is summarized at the beginning of the film with one scene and a montage of photos. It’s what happens at their crisis point that makes the plot of the entire movie. While their crises are small and thus relatable, mostly about who does the dishes, the center of the plot follows how they deal with their tension and whether or not to keep the relationship going. Knowing that the ending is unexpected may have the reader assume that they go their separate ways, but one much watch the film in its entirely to see how things wrap up, or if they even do.
My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)
This movie was perhaps the frontrunner of altering the romantic comedy plotline. Jules (Julia Roberts) tries to win the affection of ex-boyfriend Michael (Dermot Mulroney) after he has proposed to another girl. As many movies before it, funny and heart wrenching twists turn Jules’s quest into a drawn out affair. In the end everyone is happy, but only because Jules’s “gay boyfriend”—the first one introduced in a major motion picture—alters the plot in a way no one imagined.
Photo © Ghen – Fotolia.com
Friends With Benefits
New romcom Friends with Benefits centers on two young professionals, Jamie and Dylan, who are both too busy to find a partner. The solution? A purely physical, ‘no strings attached’ relationship! Of course, things are bound to get messy …
The heroine is a young female New York-based headhunter who persuades a prospective new hire to take a job in the Big Apple. The attraction between the two of them is obvious. But when both realize the other person is everything they’ve been striving to avoid in a relationship, they decide to keep emotion out of their liaison.
Mila Kunis (who was so brilliant in Black Swan) and Justin Timberlake play the couple. This is the first time Timberlake has taken a leading role, making the film one of the most eagerly anticipated of the summer. (The trailer’s YouTube release attracted more than a million views in two days, making it YouTube’s second most watched video of that day and the most viewed video in the category of “film” worldwide.)
The picture is directed by Will Gluck, with Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone and Patricia Clarkson among the supporting cast. It hit US theaters on July 22.
Gluck rewrote the original script for Kunis and Timberlake, and has compared the story to a classic Hepburn andTracyproduction. But he has said: “The two characters are in the generation where they have grown up on romcoms. They comment on them throughout the movie, realizing that they’re in a romantic comedy story, and embracing the fact that they’re going through a romantic comedy moment, as two regular people who aren’t in a movie would do.”
Early reviews described some aspects of this movie as rather formulaic and predictable. It also received criticism for being released too soon after No Strings Attached, with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher, which had a very similar premise. Nevertheless, critics and audience members alike have agreed that this film features fun, intelligent writing, and that Timberlike and Kunis shine and sizzle with palpable chemistry.
You, of course, will have to decide for yourself!
Photo © Alice – Fotolia.com
Tagged Friends with benefits, fun, funny, justin timberlake, mila kunis, romantic comedy, romcom, sexy