'Til There Was You

the first time i saw Til there was you, i liked it for it's cuteness, but it kinda went by slowly...but then i had an urge to watch it again,and i was able to catch more about the connections between Nicholas and Gwen. i love how EVERY time i watch it, i discover some new path crossing i didn't catch before. i really do like this movie.

You know what is going to happen 15 minutes into the movie, unless you have had a lobotomy. The characters are kind of likeable. Still, it's just a happy ending, format driven, feel-good movie. I guess you can watch it with a date or something, otherwise skip it.

The premise was there to make a really good romantic comedy, but somewhere it all went totally wrong. First, there were no sparks between the two leads. There they were near the end pretending to be in love at first sight, and it was just not believable at all. McDermott's character was really annoying, obnoxious, unsympathetic etc... until about 3/4 the way through the film, then he started to be sweet - but he was nowhere near convincing enough. Aniston had VERY little to do, and her character was really only half developed, while Parker's character was a complete joke - how self obsessed can a person be? The pointers on relationships in general fell short, and really the only people to liven up the film were the bit part actors, who outshone the central actors in every scene. Quite frankly this film was a total waste of energy and time. It had the foundation to be O.K but could not properly utilize the resources to pull it off.

I've seen this movie about five times by now and I still find new things to like about it. Tripplehorn is great (especially at pratfalls) and the rest of the large cast is pretty good too. The movies takes swipes at modern architecture, smoking and relationships, and they are very funny for the most part.

I own a copy of this movie and loaned it out to various movie-loving coworkers, telling them nothing about it in advance and asking them to only to 'rate it on a scale of 1-10'. Sadly, of a group of 10 different viewers, it rated an average of '3'; most thought it was awful. Only one of the 10 recognized the brilliance of this title. The irony, the ongoing parallel construction, the 'pay attention to the details' element. I'm pretty sure this story will go on to be a sort of "It's a Wonderful Life" type of film; an initial box office disappointment that is rediscovered many years later. The running gag about cigarette smoking alone sets it apart from all other movies. It's a breath of fresh air in the formulaic approach of movie making. Quirky and odd as it may be, its message of 'love will find a way' (in spite of our disruption) registered a connection in me; "in the end it always works out; don't give up".