SNMR 4.20: "A Lot Like Love"

Tonight's SNMR feature is "A Lot Like Love" (2005, PG-13, 107 minutes), starring Ashton Kutcher, Amanda Peet, Kathryn Hahn, Taryn Manning and Aimee Garcia. The film was directed by Nigel Cole.

I'd never seen this film before now. In fact, this is the first film I've ever seen anything with either Amanda Peet or Ashton Kutcher. I checked it out of the library because I was looking for some lighthearted fluff to watch. The DVD happened to still be in my player, so I watched again last night as I was lying in bed.

PLOT SUMMARY: Oliver (Kutcher) and Emily (Peet) cross paths at the airport and are on the same flight from LA to New York. They spend time together, life takes them their separate ways and they meet again three years later. Life separates them again and they meet a third time three more years later. They meet for the fourth time a year after that and a fifth time six months after that. When they are together they don't seem like they want to admit that they are falling in love. When they are apart they realize how much they miss each other. Until finally....

MY OPINION: This movie fit the bill perfectly for what I was looking for. A light, fluffy, romantic comedy. While this movie will never be on par with other great romantic comedies, it is a decent film. The script is nothing to wow you and has been compared in rip-off fashion to "When Harry Met Sally" (most r-c's pale in comparison to that one) but that's okay by me, since I got what I expected to see. The lead characters do just enough to make me want to care but there is little depth to the characters. I think Kutcher is a marginal talent at best. Peet, who is undeniably cute but not drop dead gorgeous, can be better. For starters, she makes for an unconvincing punk rock/hood type and her performange gets better as the movie progresses. Neither one of them will wow you with their performances, which were decent, considering the material they had to work with was not top shelf quality-wise.

*** out of *****