Wishful Thinking

This entertaining comedy replays its episodes from different characters' points of view, and also as scenes from 1940s black and white films. (One of the characters is a projectionist in an art house.) Through all the fun, there runs a Shakespearean comedy plot in which characters who are paired up with the wrong partners go through a series of misadventures to end up, at last, with the right one. John Stewart is very funny, in a John Stewartish way, and Drew Barrymore is luminous and funny, as always. It's a bit talky in places, but stay with it -- it'll reward your attention.

This is a cute, quirky little film, that has some pretty darned good acting performances in it. Drew Barrymore was good, and beautiful, as was Jennifer Beals. I wasn't very familiar with James LeGros, but he almost stole the show. Excellent characterization of "Max". I have to say that I did enjoy the basic device of the film, the use of different point of view characters, but the director eventually got too cutesy and that did detract from the movie. Grade: B-

I just saw the movie on cable and I had a pleasant time. No it is not a movie I would go out of my way to watch again, but definitely not the worst in my list. True, the plot was very common and only the narration was short of inventive, but all in all not a bad movie. It is just that labeling it "romantic comedy" is misleading, it might be light but not a comedy. What prompted me to write about it was Jennifer Beals whom I think stole the show. I hadn't seen her since Flashdance (yuck) and I think she matured nicely. I might look for other recent movies that she played in.

The 2 good things about this film were the costume and personality that Drew Barrymore had, and the way that they worked the 3 individuals stories into one another, which kept you a little in suspense. Other than that, this film didn't have much to offer. It wasn't romantic or funny. Not horrible either, though. I give it a 5/10 (Average)

This movie turned out to be better than I expected. The plot is interesting and original (if such thing is possible at all in such romantic genre), the dialogue has some great moments, the directing and camera-work are good enough as well. Although the actors are such stars, I think that this movie deserved even better performances than they gave. Nonetheless, Wishful Thinking is quite pleasant movie. I rank it close below Living In Oblivion and Sliding Doors.