Born Romantic

I rented this movie looking for a romantic comedy and knowing nothing about it other than it starred Craig Ferguson. I am a big fan of his, but this movie was not one that he should be proud to put on his resume! As another reviewer pointed out, there are too many subplots and not enough time to get into any of them. It was ninety minutes of drivel, truth be told. The only part that I enjoyed (which did not belong in the film one iota) was when Craig Ferguson sang in a nightclub accompanied by a band. He sounded great! While no single actor did a bad job, the material they had to work with was just subpar. Nothing fresh was done in the area of romantic comedies and the whole thing was just dull. Don't get this one! Get "Saving Grace" instead! Or "Greenfingers". Or "The Mean Machine". All 3 are in the new release section of your video store and are British movies that are much better.

This film is about 3 men trying very hard to get to the hearts of three women. These six people are connected through the same taxi they take in different times.

In the beginning, the film is confusing because of the three parallel stories to introduce the three couples. It took me a while to understand who is who! After all the scene setting, the film becomes a lot more interesting and human. The character development is good, and all six leading characters get their own unique profile. Catherine McCormack's anxious and hypochondriacal character is the most memorable. The film ends with the message that everyone wants love, we just don't know how to get it.

I must confess that I had never heard of this until it appeared in this week's TV schedules.

Yet it is a wonderfully cast, plotted, written and acted film. But above all it is both funny and true-to-life. One of the best I've seen in a long time and makes me wish I'd seen it at the cinema.

From the director of This Year's Love comes another Brit rom com, combining the talents of many of our up and coming English film stars with familiar faces from the small screen.

The film follows a group of people, and how their lives are affected through chance meetings and overlappings of social circles as they come to dance in the same salsa club and go to the same taxi rank to get home. Fergus (David Morrissey) follows his former love (Horrocks) all the way to London to attempt a reconciliation after jilting her years ago, whereas Eddie (Mistry) stumbles into the salsa club one night, and into the life of introvert Jocelyn (McCormack), reluctant to have him intrude, with a similar scenario for Frankie and Eleanor (Ferguson and Williams).

With the disgusted reports of last years figures of box office takings from Brit flicks - among the many disgraced include Janice Beard 45 wpm (starring Rhys Ifans and Pasty Kensit) and House (starring Kelly MacDonald and This Life's Jason Hughes) - only Billy Elliot and Snatch actually made a profit. The British film industry was getting increasingly stronger with international success from hits like 4 Weddings and A Funeral and The Full Monty a few years ago, so why is it we only seem to produce the occasional gem?

Probably because in the case of Born Romantic, yes, you get the occasional laugh; yes, it isn't bad in itself; especially with the calibre of actors in it, but compared to other British films, it certainly isn't doing much special or, at the very least, original. Which is a shame, considering the potential the film shows, particularly within the characterisation. Still worth seeing, but bear in mind that the influence from This Year's Love clearly shines through.

Without ever having heard of Born Romantic, I bought I movie ticket today to see the movie. As it turned out, this was a very nice surprise, a romantic movie about six single people in London. The story centers around a salsa club where they go to dance every weekend. The six actors/actresses are all new to me, but I think that Catherine McCormack's performance as the mousy Jocelyn is the most impressive.

As you should expect of a romantic movie, this one shows that true love will prevail.