Thursday, October 28, 2004

Down With Love Not Quite Down or Lovely

I watched Down With Love on DVD last Saturday night. It stars Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor along with Sarah Paulson and David Hyde Pierce. Putting in cameo appearances we have Rachel Dratch, Jack Plotnick, Tony Randall, John Aylward, Jeri Ryan, Ivana Milicevic, and Melissa George.

IMDB Plot Summary:
Barbara Novak (Renee Zellweger) has just come down from Maine to New York after writing a book called Down With Love. The book instructs women to have sex the way a man does, and to detach oneself from love completely. Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor) is a successful journalist tapped to write a cover story on Novak. He blows her off at every opportunity to cuddle with flight attendants. However, when Novak's book is a complete success, Catcher finds himself being blown off by her! So he starts to write an expose and disguises himself as a naive astronaut named Zip Martin. But he can't imagine what happens next!
I wasn't terribly impressed by this movie. It's billed as a romantic comedy, and is one, but, well, it's very non-traditional in that regard. Very up and down, a lot of role reversal, and not a few surprises thrown in for good measure. It's not bad by any means, just.. different. I'm a fan of the more "traditional" romantic comedies so that may be why this one didn't quite catch my fancy.

I did like the setting, old (60's?) New York. And IMDB informed me that this is a remake of an old movie so it works. Kind of cool for that.

ALAN'S MOVIE RATING: Rental-Worthy if you like the stars, Cable-Worthy otherwise.