Anime gemelle

Simple little romantic comedy with a beautiful girl and a hapless suitor. She is attracted to his making her laugh and being sweet. He is attracted to her being gorgeous and sexy ... not to mention talented and smart. (I had to check her name and filmography because she looked so familiar. Turns out I watched Adrianne for years in Friday Night Lights. What a hottie!)

There are surprising cameos by A-list actors in short, hilarious vignettes. (The one with William Shatner was my favorite.)

Their courtship is filled with funny lines and his fantasy short stories about relationships. I laughed and laughed!

All is well until his insecurity kicks in. What makes it so cringe-worthy is the knowledge as the viewer, that unpleasant things will surely happen.

That it ends on a pleasant, believable way seals the deal.

This is a great little movie.

Sydney (Brian Klugman) is a single actor who is too much in his head. A friend urges, nearly forces, him to approach a woman in the park, and that is how me meets Sunny (Adrianne Palicki), a bartender with dreams of being a recognized artist. She is attractive, fun-loving, kind, almost perfect, so Sydney's self-doubts kick in, and he wonders if he deserves her. Will he just lose her?

Klugman--the writer, director, actor-uses internal monologues and "stories" to illustrate the concerns of daters, like how much baggage is too much. Sydney, who is reminiscent of a neurotic Woody Allen character, digs too much and overreacts to minor issues. Losing a major relationship can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, which Sydney knows, but he cannot help himself.

This film delves into relationship issues. It is a tragic-comedic exploration that reveals little new ground, but Klugman and Palicki are fun to watch, so I can recommend it to most who like rom-coms.

Neurotic, insecure, redheaded men are rarely amusing to watch, which is why I generally avoid Woody Allen films. I now know to also avoid Brian Klugman films.

Klugman, as writer/director/neurotic-insecure-redheaded-star-of-film-about-self is apparently Woody Allen 2.0, right down to his inclusion of a plethora of A-list cameos from celebrity friends joining in for the hell of it.

There are some interesting ideas here, and one or two mildly amusing scenes, but by and large this film is masturbation and self-absorbed public flagellation with a semi-decent budget.

Although never downright depressing, this is far from a feel-good film, and the bittersweet ending is way more bitter than sweet. Avoid if you need cheering up. It's not a rom-com; it's therapy-by-filmmaking.

You can tell there is something in the writing and the directing and in so many areas. But everything here looks like potential and then most of it ends up ugly. In its effort to be honest it did have at least one really great gritty truth that resonated for me personally. But for the most part it was way too based in the lives of people who lack any foundation to manage to do well. For that matter I suppose that may be the essence of the writer and director, lacking a solid foundation. I so wanted to like this more than I did. And I did watch to the bitter end.

It is a realistic film about a romance that changes with time. The huge celebrity cameos are striking, and is the highlight for me.