A Lot Like Love
In "A Lot Like Love", the two characters played by Amanda Peet and Ashton Kutcher meet while having sexual intercourse, then spend the next four or five years ignoring their feelings and each other before succumbing to a genuine embrace. Talk about coitus interruptus. In reality, the film is a transparent effort to re-energize the formula that made "When Harry Met Sally ..". such a comedic wonder. Only that wasn't a formula but rather a thoroughly convincing, emotionally involving look at a sometimes-difficult friendship between a man and woman that evolves over time into genuine love. This is a hand-me-(dumbed)-down chick flick that is counting on Kutcher's tabloid popularity and Peet's unmistakable though here underutilized talents to cover up for rote characterizations, tired plot devices and a general lack of inspiration.
The film might well succeed, at least for a couple of weeks, thanks to Kutcher's marquee value and a dearth of romantic comedies in the marketplace. "A Lot Like Love" looks a lot like money until the blockbusters hit in early May.
Reminding one more of television than cinema, Colin Patrick Lynch's script plays off of situations rather than characters. Situation No. 1 occurs when Emily (Peet) and Oliver (Kutcher) board the same flight from Los Angeles to New York. Having witnessed a noisy breakup with her current paramour at LAX, Oliver eyes Emily with curiosity and apparent interest. She eyes him back, but that would have been that had Oliver not retreated to the lavatory to clean up a spilled drink. Emily slips in behind him, slams on the "Occupied" sign and the two emerge a while later -- she with a nonchalant look and he with a goofy expression.
In New York, Lynch allows for an equally implausible Situation No. 2, where the two happen to bump into each other the next day and get to know each other ever so slightly. Then Lynch takes us through a time frame of "Three Years Later" and "Two Years Later" right down to "Six Months Later". In each situation, one of the two is poised to break up with a significant other -- only without any explanation of the who, why and what-the-hell-happened of that relationship. The key is for Emily and Oliver to gaze at each other with moist longings and deep-felt nostalgia for that tryst in the toilet.
What Lynch strenuously avoids is any examination of who these two individuals are, how the passage of time affects them and what could possibly draw them back together given that neither one of them is a walk in the park.
In fact, until late in the movie, a viewer hasn't a clue what Emily does for a living. Oliver, on the other hand, can't seem to stop talking about his big dream. Want to guess? A Nobel Prize for chemistry? The Great American Novel? Hell, it's L.A., so why not the Great American Screenplay? Nope, he wants to set the Internet on fire with an express diaper service at Diaperrush.com. God knows why that doesn't take off.
Nigel Cole, the resourceful director of the light but entertaining British comedies "Saving Grace" and "Calendar Girls", does a decent job of coordinating actors, time periods and plot conceits, but the formulaic underpinnings of the enterprise defeat his efforts. Peet actually flourishes under his direction but has little to play other than one of those irrepressible "free spirits" that pop up in Hollywood movies without back story or motivation. Yet Peet has charm and intelligence working for her, so she can make up for character deficiencies.
Kutcher's appeal is much harder to pin down. He has few physical comedy skills, and wit certainly escapes him. What he seems to be adept at is playing a kind of earnest, awkward cluelessness that here changes not one iota over the course of the movie's seven years.
Kathryn Hahn plays Emily's best gal pal with more depth than such roles usually get. Deaf actor Ty Giordano -- who played Huck Finn in the Deaf West Theatre's revival of "Big River" on Broadway -- is Oliver's brother, a commendable casting choice had the filmmakers not spent so much screen time calling attention to their enlightened casting.
The movie is technically smooth, yet sets, costumes and lighting feel generic rather than authentic.
A LOT LIKE LOVE
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures and Beacon Pictures present a Beacon Pictures production in association with Kevin Messick Prods.
Credits:
Director: Nigel Cole
Screenwriter: Colin Patrick Lynch
Producers: Armyan Bernstein, Kevin Messick
Executive producers: Charlie Lyons, Zanne Devine, Suzann Ellis
Director of photography: John de Borman
Production designer: Tom Meyer
Music: Alex Wurman
Co-producer: Lisa Bruce
Costumes: Alix Friedberg
Editor: Susan Littenberg
Cast:
Emily: Amanda Peet
Oliver: Ashton Kutcher
Michelle: Kathryn Hahn
Jeeter: Kal Penn
Gina: Ali Larter
Ellen: Taryn Manning
Graham: Ty Giordano
MPAA rating: PG-13
Running time -- 107 minutes...
The film might well succeed, at least for a couple of weeks, thanks to Kutcher's marquee value and a dearth of romantic comedies in the marketplace. "A Lot Like Love" looks a lot like money until the blockbusters hit in early May.
Reminding one more of television than cinema, Colin Patrick Lynch's script plays off of situations rather than characters. Situation No. 1 occurs when Emily (Peet) and Oliver (Kutcher) board the same flight from Los Angeles to New York. Having witnessed a noisy breakup with her current paramour at LAX, Oliver eyes Emily with curiosity and apparent interest. She eyes him back, but that would have been that had Oliver not retreated to the lavatory to clean up a spilled drink. Emily slips in behind him, slams on the "Occupied" sign and the two emerge a while later -- she with a nonchalant look and he with a goofy expression.
In New York, Lynch allows for an equally implausible Situation No. 2, where the two happen to bump into each other the next day and get to know each other ever so slightly. Then Lynch takes us through a time frame of "Three Years Later" and "Two Years Later" right down to "Six Months Later". In each situation, one of the two is poised to break up with a significant other -- only without any explanation of the who, why and what-the-hell-happened of that relationship. The key is for Emily and Oliver to gaze at each other with moist longings and deep-felt nostalgia for that tryst in the toilet.
What Lynch strenuously avoids is any examination of who these two individuals are, how the passage of time affects them and what could possibly draw them back together given that neither one of them is a walk in the park.
In fact, until late in the movie, a viewer hasn't a clue what Emily does for a living. Oliver, on the other hand, can't seem to stop talking about his big dream. Want to guess? A Nobel Prize for chemistry? The Great American Novel? Hell, it's L.A., so why not the Great American Screenplay? Nope, he wants to set the Internet on fire with an express diaper service at Diaperrush.com. God knows why that doesn't take off.
Nigel Cole, the resourceful director of the light but entertaining British comedies "Saving Grace" and "Calendar Girls", does a decent job of coordinating actors, time periods and plot conceits, but the formulaic underpinnings of the enterprise defeat his efforts. Peet actually flourishes under his direction but has little to play other than one of those irrepressible "free spirits" that pop up in Hollywood movies without back story or motivation. Yet Peet has charm and intelligence working for her, so she can make up for character deficiencies.
Kutcher's appeal is much harder to pin down. He has few physical comedy skills, and wit certainly escapes him. What he seems to be adept at is playing a kind of earnest, awkward cluelessness that here changes not one iota over the course of the movie's seven years.
Kathryn Hahn plays Emily's best gal pal with more depth than such roles usually get. Deaf actor Ty Giordano -- who played Huck Finn in the Deaf West Theatre's revival of "Big River" on Broadway -- is Oliver's brother, a commendable casting choice had the filmmakers not spent so much screen time calling attention to their enlightened casting.
The movie is technically smooth, yet sets, costumes and lighting feel generic rather than authentic.
A LOT LIKE LOVE
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures and Beacon Pictures present a Beacon Pictures production in association with Kevin Messick Prods.
Credits:
Director: Nigel Cole
Screenwriter: Colin Patrick Lynch
Producers: Armyan Bernstein, Kevin Messick
Executive producers: Charlie Lyons, Zanne Devine, Suzann Ellis
Director of photography: John de Borman
Production designer: Tom Meyer
Music: Alex Wurman
Co-producer: Lisa Bruce
Costumes: Alix Friedberg
Editor: Susan Littenberg
Cast:
Emily: Amanda Peet
Oliver: Ashton Kutcher
Michelle: Kathryn Hahn
Jeeter: Kal Penn
Gina: Ali Larter
Ellen: Taryn Manning
Graham: Ty Giordano
MPAA rating: PG-13
Running time -- 107 minutes...
- 5/19/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Peet, Kutcher sweet for 'Love'
It's beginning to look A Lot Like Love between Amanda Peet and Ashton Kutcher. The actress, who stars opposite Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton onscreen in Nancy Meyers' Something's Gotta Give for Columbia Pictures, has been cast opposite Kutcher in the Beacon Pictures/Walt Disney Co. co-production for helmer Nigel Cole. Kutcher had been circling the romantic comedy for weeks, sources said, reading opposite potential co-stars. Now with the positive pairing of Peet, reps for both are negotiating their deals, with shooting scheduled to start in April, when Kutcher is on hiatus from Fox's That '70s Show. The Colin Patrick Lynch-penned project revolves around a guy and a girl who manage to resist their mutual attraction over the years only to see fate throwing them back together.
- 1/27/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Peet, Kutcher sweet for 'Love'
It's beginning to look A Lot Like Love between Amanda Peet and Ashton Kutcher. The actress, who stars opposite Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton onscreen in Nancy Meyers' Something's Gotta Give for Columbia Pictures, has been cast opposite Kutcher in the Beacon Pictures/Walt Disney Co. co-production for helmer Nigel Cole. Kutcher had been circling the romantic comedy for weeks, sources said, reading opposite potential co-stars. Now with the positive pairing of Peet, reps for both are negotiating their deals, with shooting scheduled to start in April, when Kutcher is on hiatus from Fox's That '70s Show. The Colin Patrick Lynch-penned project revolves around a guy and a girl who manage to resist their mutual attraction over the years only to see fate throwing them back together.
- 1/27/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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