On the Line

Kevin (Lance Bass) is a young advertising executive whose career is on the upswing. However, his personal life is more of a shambles as he is painfully shy around women. One day on a train in Chicago, he meets pretty Abbey (Emmanuelle Chriqui), who strikes his interest immediately. They both love Al Green, the Cubs, and history. However, Kevin clams up at the end of the conversation and fails to acquire her name and telephone number. He regrets his lack of fortitude soon after and decides to put up posters around the city in an effort to find her. The local newspaper, spotting one of the signs, even features an article on Kevin's plight. Yet, Abbey fails to appear. Will Kevin connect again with Abbey, even as he's fighting off the attentions of other women?

With NSync member Bass as the star of the show, one would expect a movie only tweens would appreciate. Not so. Bass and Chriqui are winsome and winning as they seek to find each other again. The scenes in and around Chicago are engaging. The supporting cast is a bit goofy and grating at times (especially Kevin's friends) but, overall, the presentation of the movie is upbeat and humorous. Fans of light-hearted romantic films would be savvy to seek out this little sleeper. A happy feeling will permeate the viewer's heart for a long time.

Promising set up, attractive (but not TOO attractive) leads, a solid supporting cast, excellent technical work. . . . all with a screenplay that is made out of just a bit too much fluff.

Fluff is good. Too much fluff is bad. Kevin lacks the "un nice" undertones to be believable-- even the best among us have some real flaws, not just a pseudo flaw of "choking" when dealing with the opposite sex. Kevin is 99% pure fluff, and the attempt to make the character into a creative person fails because a creative person is more multi dimensional than pretty boy Kevin. His friends are also painted in one or two dimensional strokes, and the Abbey role winds up painted so shallowly that it is difficult to conceive of why someone, even those as shallow as her fiancee and Kevin, would pursue her.

Their instant connection soul mate behavior simply does not have enough questioning, enough basis for existing. Even a child's balloon has more substance than what they created in their first meeting. There has to be more than a smile, a list of presidents, or a love for a baseball team to make a connection.

When it is finally revealed to him that he was betrayed, Kevin becomes violent toward a friend-- without really exhibiting anger, a perfunctory physical attack coming short of a playground fight. The entire movie was surface gloss and fluff, but with the promise of meat and potatoes.

I wanted to believe.

Wish I could have.

On The Line is a sweet and innocent movie for little girls or those who love cute little romances. Lance Bass from Nsync fame is quite good as the lead who always chokes up around the opposite sex and in the workplace. I was pleasantly surprised with this movie. It has an innocent quality that is not found in many films anymore. On The Line isn't Oscar winning but it is a movie that should appeal to those who love the innocence of young love.

Got a free pass and did not know who was in the movie nor what the movie was about. As a result I ended up counting the minutes until it was over. Perhaps if you are a teenage girl who just loves the backstreet boys or n'sync or whoever is in this movie could be for you, but with really bad acting and an unoriginal plotline I would not bet on it. I just wish studios would consult me before making films like this so I could save them money.

The 2001's opus On The Line is clearly one of the gripping romantic comedies of our time. The cellioud itself is iconoclast, redefining itself and the genre as a whole. In film we have a man who is seperated from his would be lover via the manical train (representative of man's conflict with nature and his own increasing modernaization in the late capitalist model). In turn Fatone's character must search to reclaim his lost love, but just as they appear to be reunited larger symbollic structures will keep them apart. For instance a large glass pane, (a nod to Freuds Id, and dismantling of the mirror stage, for through this glass, Fatone sees not himself but his lover, an analysis of both the social construction of self, and the dialouge of co-dependency). Will they end up in passionate union? Rent it and get TURNED ON THE LINE A brilliant piece of Shaduenfrueden.