While the talented Jennifer Garner can prop up mediocre material (see 13 going 30) not even she and an entertaining Kevin Smith can make Catch and Relief compelling. Lacking a driving conflict and any real plot, the movie plays like a commercial for Boulder, Colorado, and Wrangler 5-Star jeans. This chick flick (with the worst that name implies) follows the lives of five twenty- to thirty-somethings as they deal with the loss of a their in-turn best-friend, roommate, fiancé, and baby-daddy on his white-water bachelor party. Turns out the deceased wasn’t quite as perfect as his bride-to-be (Garner) believed, with an ongoing “relationship” with a message-therapist resulting in a $3000 a month paternity bill. Forgetting for a moment that assumably the most compelling reason for entering into an arrangement with an erotic masseuse is the lack of strings, such a revelation would certainly seem to color a fiance’s memory of her groom for more than 24 hours. Not so. Unfortunately, that conflict, along with every other one, is quickly and painlessly resolved, leaving us to watch pretty people (plus Smith) pose and meander towards middle-age via a number of passionless PG-13 love scenes.
It isn’t painful, it’s just silly. One can only hope that someone, either in the movies or on TV, again captures the fiery humor, strength, and vulnerability Garner brought to Alias’s Sydney Bristow. Now that would be worth $10.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Catch and Release Rating: 4
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1 comment:
If there is a movie that a priest should review, it's "Deliver Us From Evil." Although I could also see how "The Outsiders" or "Newsies" might interest a man of the cloth. Jennifer Garner? You should save her for the C++ Programmer (who would be a nice addition, along with the Uninsured Father of Fifteen Who Built Your House).
Speaking of your website, I'd find it more compelling if the doctor, lawyer, and priest adopted hyperstereotyped personas in their reviews. Either that, or stick to completely obscure subject matter that is still loosely linked to the identified professional fields. The pop market already suffers from too many standard, well-written commentaries on itself. It also suffers from weak-willed Alias nostalgics who haven't yet realized that Jennifer Garner isn't Gillian Anderson--she's David Duchovny. Of course, it's completely possible that priest doesn't care about tv-to-movie transferability and is only interested in the fact that Garner is hot. This would be a completely understandable confession for any man, collared or not.
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