Good movie but grossly overrated

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is one of those films that I almost turned off a couple times, but got hooked back in with the humor and wit. It's a definite off-the-wall romantic comedy with enough quirkiness to make the characters and the story lovable. The thing that kept turning me off was the constant reference to the need for therapy, therapists, and over-analysis by Ira, the main character who is neurotic and has been in the therapy system his whole life. Fortunately, everything else the movie has to offer helps alleviate the constant stress I experienced thinking over and over "just let it go, Ira! Choose to be happy and accept your wife and her love and imperfections!!!!" I think, for the general masses, this wouldn't be a huge issue, and overall would be seen as an enjoyable, quirky film with a great amount of humor, just enough drama, and a good touch of heart.

This film is about as contrived and pretentious as a movie can get. If you picked random lines out of a hat and handed them to the actors you would have a better script. Not even a decent cast can help this atrocity. The only good thing I can say is that it is a cure for insomnia. Very few details about this film are authentic. For example, Abby (Westfeldt, who is also the writer and producer, which should give you an idea of how self-indulgent this film is), who is supposed to be a gym instructor, is seen munching on McDonald's french fries, and never even pretends to actually work. Ira, an annoyingly self-pitying specimen (why do so many recent films set in Manhattan include such nonentities?), suddenly says he feels fat and goes to her gym, whereupon Abby instantly asks him to marry him and have sex. If you think this is plausible, then you will probably like this film, and you also believe that George Bush will find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. This is another of those "independent" films where absolutely none of the characters bears any resemblance to a human being, and where you feel you have wasted 90 minutes of your life. Beware of movies where the writers, actors, and the producers are the same people.

Admittedly I'm hard on romantic comedies. Too often they are wildly unrealistic, filled with characters who are inexplicably wealthy and who act like people you just want to punch in the face because they're so neurotic and self-centered. At least this one doesn't have that problem.But it has a different problem. Westfeldt doesn't really address the movie's main questions. Is it best to just "go with it", or do you have to build your relationship like you would build a building? How important is marriage, and what's the point of it anyway? Why can't people talk to one another directly? What happens to your present when your past jumps up to haunt you? If you love each other, does it really matter what your life ambition is?These would be great things to think about, but instead Westfeldt bogs down the movie by having Ira's mom get into an affair with Abby's dad. Then when this news comes to light, everyone withdraws to their separate corners and plastic surgeons and therapists. (By the way, you could see the "therapists screw everything up" angle coming from the first five minutes of the movie - in fact, I'm still waiting for a "New York romance" movie to not involve a massive amount of complaining to therapists. Or analysts, as Ira's parents take pride in calling themselves.) Granted, it was at least funny to watch. But there's a scene near the end where Abby pulls in all the therapists, both sets of parents, herself, and Ira for a giant session. While everyone else starts yelling at each other, Ira and Abby look across the room at each other and mentally reconcile. The most telling thing to me was that at that moment, you could see how many unnecessary characters there were in the movie because the room was filled with them as Ira and Abby walked out together.

I saw this film at the LA film festival, and enjoyed it, even if it left me pretty much right away. The plot is one we've seen before, almost a sitcom plot, outgoing girl meets nebbishy guy. It's kind of a cross between an older Woody Allen film and Darhma and Greg, but what makes it enjoyable is the cast.The two leads are fine, but it's the supporting pros that steal the film with relish whenever they can. Robert Klein, Frances Conroy, Fred Willard all seem to be having a very fun time, and that translates right out into the audience.I think it was shot on digital instead of film, which makes it kind of different to look at, but not unpleasant at all.A fun date movie!