The Rom Com Catalog

Category: Reviews – #

  • ‘(500) Days of Summer’ (2009) Review

    ‘(500) Days of Summer’ (2009) Review

    When Tom meets Summer, his dream girl, he falls hard and fast, despite Summer’s insistence that she does not want a serious relationship. When Summer breaks things off, Tom reflects on their relationship to try and figure out what went wrong.

    (500) Days of Summer quickly points out that this is not a love story. Even when Tom and Summer are at their peak happiness, we can see it’s clearly not love, at least not from the viewpoint of Summer. Tom is oblivious to Summer’s cooling affection because he’s happy and in love, so we take the journey with him as he struggles to figure out what caused the demise of their relationship.

    I really loved that this film is not linear. It bounces back and forth through various points (days) of Summer and Tom’s relationship, and while we already know the ending, this unconventional storytelling approach keeps things interesting. As Tom, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is extremely likable, and I am sure anyone who has experienced heartbreak can relate to his maddening inability to see how wrong Summer is for him.

    Zooey Deschanel was the perfect actress to play the part of Summer. This kind of role could easily have teetered into the manic-pixie dream girl trope, but Summer has depth and an actual personality that make her feel like a fully realized person. She’s honest and independent, and she doesn’t seem to have a romantic bone in her body.

    More than that, she does not exist solely for Tom to mature and grow as a man (though he does); she is also a person in her own right. While she does have her charms, Summer can also come across as somewhat unlikable. She told Tom she is not interested in a boyfriend or anything serious, yet she allows it to happen anyway. She knows how Tom feels about her, and when he walks away, she pulls him back in.

    I’ve seen numerous commentaries on this movie where Summer is portrayed as the villain, but I disagree. I don’t necessarily think anyone in this movie is the “bad guy.” They both make questionable decisions – Summer continues the relationship, knowing she does not feel the same way for Tom that he feels for her, and Tom places unrealistic expectations on their relationship. But that is what makes (500) Days of Summer so good. It’s a story about human relationships. Sometimes they don’t work out, and there isn’t always one person to blame.

    (500) Days of Summer is unique and sharply written, with on-point performances from Deschanel and Gordon-Levitt. Director Marc Webb pulls us into the rom-com world with a delightful musical number, some black-and-white fantasies, and animated, lovesick birds. And then he yanks us back into the real world, full of disappointment and days where it’s hard enough to get out of bed, let alone get dressed and face life without someone you thought was The One. Expectations versus reality. Rom-coms are usually meant for us to revel in the expectations, but every now and then, a movie comes along that forces us to face reality, and we are better for it. (500) Days of Summer is one of those movies.

    Watched: 01/17/2025
    Notable Song: Sweet Disposition by Temper Trap

    Rating:
  • ’10 Things I Hate About You’ (1999) Review

    ’10 Things I Hate About You’ (1999) Review

    In this modern take on William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, Kat Stratford is a pretty, but anti-social senior who has no time for the typical high school fare. Her younger sister Bianca is desperate to start dating, especially when Joey, the school’s handsome but arrogant jock, starts to notice her. Unfortunately, their father is so paranoid about teen pregnancy that he refuses to let Bianca date until Kat does. It’s easier said than done because Kat has zero interest in dating.

    In an effort to manipulate the situation, Bianca gets new kid Cameron, who also has a crush on her, to find a guy for Kat to date. Cameron and his friend Michael decide on Patrick Verona, the resident bad boy whose reputation is surrounded by outlandish rumors – he sold his liver for a new pair of speakers and allegedly ate a live duck once. But Cameron and Michael don’t have much luck with Patrick on their own, so Michael convinces Joey to pay Patrick to take out Kat, the reward being that he can date Bianca himself. Got it?

    During a year when teen comedies saturated the market, 10 Things I Hate About You really rose above the rest. For one, most of the teens in this movie were played by actual teenagers. But it was also a clever take on the Bard, maintaining the humor of the original source without delving into wacky, juvenile shenanigans that seemed to be front and center in so many other teen comedies that year.

    It’s strange to watch this movie now and realize that both Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles were relatively unknown at the time. Ledger embodied the persona of the bad boy with a heart of gold, and Patrick’s rendition of Frankie Valli’s Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You, backed by the high school band, became an iconic moment not only in teen comedies, but in rom-coms in general. Cue the swoon!

    Kat’s sister thinks she’s a freak, the boys think she’s a bitch, and even her English teacher is annoyed by her frequent voicing of opinion. Nobody in this movie knows what to do with Kat, which is a pointed look at how the world, in general, perceives strong women. Stiles plays Kat with fierce, unapologetic independence, never needing to change who she is to capture Patrick’s heart. Honestly, it’s refreshing to see a female lead grow throughout a movie like this without undergoing a physical transformation to make her more appealing. Kat is who she is, and she stays true to herself, even when she finally allows her more vulnerable side to show.

    Her chemistry with Ledger is what makes this movie work. Both Patrick and Kat are outsiders, surrounded by people who don’t know or understand them, and while neither seems to care, when they come together, it’s clear they’ve both been searching for that one person who does understand.

    Larisa Oleynik has the more typical story arc as Bianca, in which she discovers that dating the hot guy and being popular aren’t as wonderful as she believed. Wannabe model Joey (Andrew Keegan) is self-absorbed and dumb, but thankfully, he’s amusing enough for it not to be too obnoxious to tolerate. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as Cameron, is as sweet as can be, instantly smitten with Bianca, and willing to go the extra mile to win her heart. The supporting players, notably David Krumholtz and Susan May Pratt, all add their own unique brand of humor.

    There are aspects of the movie that probably wouldn’t fly by today’s standards, but considering this movie was released twenty-one years ago, it’s still surprisingly solid for a teen comedy. It still feels fresh and inventive, even two decades later. With a talented ensemble, a wonderfully 90’s soundtrack, and a really witty script, this is one of the few teen rom-coms from the era that I think we can safely say is a classic.

    Watched: 04/13/2020
    Notable Song: Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You by Frankie Valli

    Rating:

  • ’12 Dates of Christmas’ (2011) Review

    ’12 Dates of Christmas’ (2011) Review

    Kate (Amy Smart) is determined to win back her ex-boyfriend Jack. She asks to meet with him on Christmas Eve, using their shared dog, Max, as an excuse to see him. While shopping for the perfect gift to give him, she faints at the mall after being sprayed in the face by a perfume tester. When she comes to, all seems fine, and she rushes off to get ready for her blind date with Miles (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), her stepmother’s godson.

    The date does not go well, as Kate is a bit flippant and more focused on her phone, waiting for Jack to call than on Miles. Miles ends the date early when it’s clear Kate isn’t over her ex, and Kate rushes off to meet with Jack. She also meets his new girlfriend, Nancy. It’s a miserable day all around, but when the clock hits midnight, the day seems to rewind until Kate wakes up once again on the floor of the mall… on Christmas Eve.

    Again Kate soon realizes that she has an opportunity to live the same day over and over until she gets it right. But for someone who seems oblivious to what real love and family look like, it’s going to take more than a night or two to figure things out… it takes twelve nights, to be exact.

    Clearly inspired by Groundhog Day, The 12 Dates of Christmas isn’t nearly as clever or fun, but it does have a lot of heart. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I really liked Amy Smart in Just Friends, and she’s as charming in 12 Dates of Christmas, despite how self-absorbed her character seems to be at the beginning of the movie. She’s a likable actress, which was needed here to keep the audience around to see if she can finally figure out what the perfect Christmas Eve is supposed to look like.

    While how Kate wakes up is the same (always on the mall floor with a concerned gentleman and the mall manager hovering), the days are always different, depending on Kate’s choices. The movie is a bit shaky during those first few do-overs, but it seems to find its rhythm once Kate realizes she can help more than just herself.

    Smart and Gosselaar have some nice chemistry, and it’s fun to watch Kate fall in love with Miles, who still barely knows her, as the first time meeting her each day is the first time he’s meeting her. One of my favorite moments, in terms of comedy at least, is when Kate tells Miles she’s falling in love with him, and they’ve literally only known each other for a couple of hours – in Miles’s head, anyway. You can’t blame him for running away asap. Gosselaar was quite good in this, handsome and affable with an actual personality, which was a nice change from some of the movies I’ve watched recently.

    There’s nothing overly special about 12 Dates of Christmas‘s supporting cast, but they’re there to help Kate grow as a person, so they at least serve a purpose. The one shining spot is Jayne Eastwood as Margine, Kate’s elderly neighbor who teaches her how to bake. She was also in The Knight Before Christmas, but it wasn’t memorable enough for me to bump it up half a star. sorry!

    12 Dates of Christmas is exactly what you would expect. It was cheesy with some corny dialogue and silliness, but honestly, I found myself laughing through quite a bit of it…when I was supposed to laugh, if you can believe it! There were heartwarming, festive moments too, and I didn’t feel like I had wasted 90 minutes of my life when it was over. Look, I know this is not a fantastic piece of *cinema* by any means, and it’s nowhere near as wonderful as Groundhog Day, but it’s a light, breezy homage sprinkled with a lot of snow and Christmas cheer.

    Watched: 12/05/2019
    Notable Song: The Twelve Days of Christmas

    Rating:
  • ’13 Going on 30′ (2004) Review

    ’13 Going on 30′ (2004) Review

    Thirteen-year-old Jenna Rink has had it with adolescence. Despite having a loyal but nerdy best friend named Matt, Jenna is desperate to befriend “The Six Chicks,” a group of popular girls at school. She invites them to her birthday party, but instead of being accepted, she suffers a Seven Minutes in Heaven humiliation and fervently wishes she were a grown-up. Thanks to some magic dust that she got from Matt, her wish is granted, and a 30-year-old Jenna (Jennifer Garner) wakes up in New York City.

    After the shock of what has happened begins to wear off, she discovers she’s a successful editor of the kind of beauty magazines she read as a teenager. Her best friend and colleague is Lucy Wyman (Judy Greer), one of The Six Chicks. But her success didn’t come easy, as Jenna soon finds out. She and Matt (Mark Ruffalo) are no longer friends and haven’t been for quite some time. It also becomes clear to Jenna that her adult self is conniving and self-serving, obsessed with having it all and indifferent to those she hurts in the process of achieving her dreams.

    13 Going on 30 is a romance, but also about Jenna’s redemption. She realizes she’s gotten everything she wanted in life, but is increasingly appalled at what her future self did to get there. Jennifer Garner is excellent as a thirteen-year-old in a thirty-year-old body. Jenna’s naiveté and childlike wonder could have so easily been cringy and annoying in the hands of a less capable actor. Still, Garner comes across as sweet while maintaining a sense of confidence and determination that is hard to find in many insecure thirteen-year-olds.

    Mark Ruffalo plays Matt with a laid-back coolness perfectly balanced with lingering vulnerability at being ditched by his best friend and crush at thirteen. His resistance to Jenna re-entering his life in such a confusing way is understandable, but also incredibly endearing because you can see how easily he’s charmed by her. The two have some pretty fantastic chemistry, and I’m willing to forgive the fact that Matt has a fiancée, given that we see her two or three times. She’s essentially the catalyst for Jenna realizing she can’t turn back time to right her wrongs. She has to start from the beginning to make things right.

    I dislike nothing about this film except Jenna’s hockey-player boyfriend. He was a doofus; I just didn’t understand what a power-hungry diva boss like Jenna would ever see in him, other than his “celebrity” status. The horrible striptease to Ice Ice Baby was humorous, if only for Jenna’s horrified reaction.

    Yes, there are a dozen-and-one questions about how the magic dust worked, the plot’s plausibility, and blah, blah, blah, but I don’t care. I wanted to be entertained, laugh, and watch a sweet romance blossom, and I got all those things from 13 Going on 30. I also got a fantastic dance sequence to Thriller, which will always make a Top 10 (maybe Top 20) list of the best rom-com moments.

    13 Going on 30 touches upon what we can and can’t achieve without a moral compass. Obviously, it’s better to be a good person than a back-stabbing bitch, even if the latter makes the path to success much more straightforward. Jenna was able to see who she turned out to be and, with a second chance, become who she really wanted instead. 13 Going on 30 doesn’t break any new ground in terms of the genre, but it’s a sweet, funny movie with a captivating performance by Garner and a swoon-worthy leading man in Ruffalo.

    And I won’t lie, I believe the scene between Jenna and Matt on the swings in the park is one of the most romantic scenes in rom-com history.

    Watched: 07/31/2019
    Notable Song: Crazy For You by Madonna

    Rating:
  • ’27 Dresses’ (2008) Review

    ’27 Dresses’ (2008) Review

    Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. In 27 Dresses, that’s essentially the life of altruistic Jane Nichols (Katherine Heigl), a romantic who has found herself a bridesmaid in 27 different weddings while harboring an unrequited crush on her boss, George (Edward Burns).

    At times, Jane comes across as more of a wedding planner than a bridesmaid, as so many people depend on her to keep their special day running smoothly. Jane has a problem with saying “no” not only to her friends but also to George and her younger sister, Tess (Malin Akerman), who has recently returned home from Europe and quickly captures George’s heart.

    Jane bites her tongue throughout the whirlwind romance, watching Tess lie and manipulate George into believing she is his dream girl. When George proposes to Tess, Jane will soon add a 28th bridesmaid dress to her overstuffed closet. See, she’s too sentimental to toss the hideous creations away or “shorten it and wear again” as every bride has told her to do.

    She’s not thrilled about essentially becoming Tess’s wedding planner. Things are made worse when she is thrown into close proximity with Kevin Doyle (James Marsden), a handsome but cynical reporter for the local newspaper who writes the Commitments section.

    He’s already intrigued by Jane, having watched her race between two weddings on Saturday night, and he’s assigned to cover Tess and George’s upcoming nuptials. He weaves true tales of everlasting love but doesn’t believe in any of it. Kevin is of the mind that people don’t get married for the marriage, they get married for the wedding, and this is where he and Jane butt heads.

    But when Kevin finds Jane’s yearly planner stuffed with wedding plans for all of her friends, he realizes that there might be a story there, one that could potentially get him a promotion. So Kevin uses the material he gains from Tess and George’s article to create a piece on Jane’s situation. Think Runaway Bride, but instead, it’s Perpetual Bridesmaid.

    Every step of 27 Dresses is predictable, but I didn’t mind it as I do so many other romantic comedies. We get a drunken bar sing-a-long to Elton John’s Bennie and the Jets and a fantastic montage of Jane trying on all her hideous dresses for Kevin. Having been a bridesmaid in a few weddings, I’m thankful never to have had to wear even one monstrosity. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy this movie’s piles of taffeta and silk flying around. To be honest, I kind of regret not having a themed wedding myself and shoving my friends into hoop skirts with ruffles and bonnets.

    That being said, Katherine Heigl made the movie work for me. She is engaging as Jane, a character who could easily have been a downtrodden doormat, but Heigl gives her a witty edge that is sorely needed when everyone around her takes advantage of her good nature. James Marsden is an appealing leading man, the hunky cynic to Heigl’s sentimental Jane.

    They weren’t overflowing in the chemistry department, but there was just enough spark to keep me invested, and I enjoyed their banter. The problem is, I don’t think there was enough of it. 27 Dresses shines when Jane and Kevin are together. Still, the movie focuses far too much on Jane, Tess, and George, who unfortunately fit the role of the handsome but dull secondary love interest far too perfectly. That particular love triangle brings the movie down because, besides having plenty of money and being played by Edward Burns, I couldn’t figure out what Jane saw in George.

    Judy Greer shows up intermittently as Jane’s friend Casey, and I would have loved to have seen more of her throughout the film. Greer tends to play the quirky friend in these romantic comedies, and I find she elevates even the most boring of them. Sadly, she’s underused here except when she needs to step in and give Jane advice.

    I completely understand the annoyance with wedding-themed romantic comedies, where the heroines are made out to be ravenous for love, marriage, and nothing more. Some could even argue that 27 Dresses fits that mold, but at the same time, I think the movie proves that women are allowed to be romantics, they’re allowed to want love, and they’re capable of enjoying weddings without turning into shrieking, toxic harpies if one thing doesn’t go their way (I’m looking at you, Bride Wars.).

    I certainly don’t think 27 Dresses is as bad as so many critics tend to believe. Sure, it lacks originality, but it’s still a frothy, lively rom-com that is funny and sweet, thanks to Heigl. There are also rumblings of a potential sequel, which, to be honest, I would probably really enjoy.

    27 Dresses is not a great movie, but it’s certainly the right kind of movie to watch on a lazy Sunday, where you don’t want to have to invest too much brainpower into anything.

    Watched: 06/17/2019
    Notable Song: Bennie and the Jets by Elton John

    Rating:
  • ‘2 Days in New York’ (2012) Review

    ‘2 Days in New York’ (2012) Review

    2 Days in New York is Julie Delpy’s follow-up to 2 Days in Paris (which, admittedly, I have not yet seen) and finds her character Marion having split from Jake (Adam Goldberg) and living with her new boyfriend Mingus (Chris Rock) in New York.

    They’re raising her son, Lulu, as well as Mingus’s daughter, Willow, from his first marriage. Things seem pretty cozy in their tiny New York apartment, but all of that changes over the course of two days when Marion’s family from France arrives to attend the opening of her art show.

    Her father Jeannot (Albert Delpy, Julie’s real-life father), her sister Rose (Alexia Landeau), and Rose’s boyfriend Manu (Alexandre Nahon) instantly make a less-than-favorable impression when Jeannot and Manu are held up at customs for four hours due to their attempts to smuggle sausages into the country. Things become chaotic almost instantly. Rose and Marion constantly clash, Manu makes some pretty creepy, suggestive remarks toward Mingus’s sister, and Mingus and Jeannot have difficulty overcoming language barriers to communicate meaningfully.

    Albert Delpy is really a delight in 2 Days in New York. He seems to be having such fun in this movie, and I found the broken conversations between him and Mingus to be one of the only highlights. Delpy is a fantastic actress, and she and Rock had an effortless, understated chemistry that made me want to see things work out for them amid all the frustration and familial annoyances. Chris Rock gives a very good, natural performance as Mingus, and it was quite lovely to see him in such a restrained role.

    I have to say that I related to Mingus the most out of the entire ensemble because the longer 2 Days in New York went on and the more obnoxious Marion’s family became, the more annoyed I felt to the point where I considered turning it off. I’ll never know how Mingus managed to hold his shit together because I was ready to scream about ten minutes into the French family’s arrival. Yes, there are a few funny moments, but ultimately, it’s four people arguing in French and being horrible to each other and others while Mingus looks on, either confused or horrified. Maybe Mingus is supposed to be the audience?

    What really stinks is that 2 Days in New York starts strong with a charming synopsis of how Marion and Mingus got together. But as soon as Marion’s family shows up, it simply loses its way and becomes nearly unbearable. The movie has a very manic, claustrophobic feel. It’s full of painfully unfunny scenes that left me cringing. Had any of the characters been worth caring for, that might have been okay, but very few are likable.

    There is a bizarre scene where Vincent Gallo—who plays himself in an uncredited role—buys Marion’s soul at her art show, sending Marion into a tailspin. However, considering the movie’s initial tone, it feels entirely out of place. All I can say is that the entire thing just felt unfocused and uneven. Admittedly, the last ten minutes are pretty cute, a nice bookend to the beginning, but I was more than a little relieved when it finally ended.

    Watched: 04/10/2019
    Notable Song: Lost Again by Julie Delpy

    Rating:
  • ’50 First Dates’ (2004) Review

    ’50 First Dates’ (2004) Review

    Veterinarian Henry Roth (Adam Sandler) is a playboy afraid of commitment. But when he meets Lucy (Drew Barrymore) in a local diner, he finds himself drawn to her sweet, off-beat personality. Unfortunately, he soon discovers Lucy suffers from short-term memory loss due to a car accident the year before, and he finds himself having to win her heart all over again, day after day.

    While The Wedding Singer remains my favorite rom-com collaboration between Barrymore and Sandler, I realized during my rewatch of 50 First Dates that I enjoy it much more now than I did when I saw it years ago. The weak link in the movie is the first half-hour or so. 50 First Dates opens with a ridiculous montage of various beautiful women lamenting wistfully about their brief but amazing interludes with local Hawaiian stud Henry Roth, which may have worked had the leading man been anyone but Adam Sandler (although perhaps that was a part of the joke).

    We get to know more about Henry, who is quite clearly a commitment phobe with little to no respect for women. There is some abundant gross-out humor (yay, projectile vomiting!) and a few juvenile, problematic jokes that fall flat. But once Henry meets Lucy, the movie finally shifts tone, and we get to the story’s heart.

    What begins as Henry merely trying to prove that he can get any girl he wants turns into a genuine connection between him and Lucy. Even when he’s told the truth about her condition, he can’t seem to back away despite warnings from her friends and family. It’s amusing in a Groundhog Day-esque way to watch him devise various ways to catch her attention as the days pass. Despite how ridiculous it is, I thoroughly enjoyed the sequence where Drew Barrymore beat Rob Schneider’s silly Ula with a baseball bat.

    Sandler and Barrymore share such sweet and quirky chemistry that watching Henry try to win over Lucy for most of 50 First Dates never gets old. You want her to remember their love, to somehow magically cure her memory loss (spoiler: it doesn’t, but that’s also part of the magic of their relationship), and for them to find a happy ever after.

    We get a heartbreaking kiss in the rain, and even though Lucy will never be able to remember Henry in the long term, meeting him has changed her own life for good, making her condition a bit easier not only on herself but on her father Marlin (an excellent Blake Clark) and brother Doug (a mildly amusing Sean Astin).

    Barrymore has such a shining presence on screen, and she takes what could have been a one-note character. She gives Lucy life, creating a joyful and devastatingly vulnerable character in the face of her tragic circumstances. Henry probably doesn’t deserve her, but Sandler projects the emotional depth needed to make us root for him through the character’s growth and determination to win Lucy’s heart and help her.

    50 First Dates has plenty of gross-out moments, and it wouldn’t be a Happy Madison production without the sophomoric humor. Ultimately, it’s a warm, romantic movie that starts slightly bumpy but finishes strong.

    Watched: 01/05/2019
    Notable Song: Wouldn’t It Be Nice by The Beach Boys

    Rating:
  • ’10 Years’ (2011) Review

    ’10 Years’ (2011) Review

    A group of former friends reconvenes for their high school reunion, leading to an evening of revealing, bittersweet, and awkward moments. As with most reunion movies, it’s chock full of high school stereotypes: the obnoxious bully, the nerds, the party girl, that one guy who became famous, and the couple that was supposed to go the distance.

    10 Years is predictable enough. The bully seeks redemption; unrequited crushes come to light; spouses are introduced to the high school side of their significant other that they may not have known about, etc.

    This movie has quite a few actors who were still up-and-coming at the time: Channing Tatum, Kate Mara, Max Minghella, Chris Pratt, Oscar Isaac, etc. But a film with a large ensemble can feel bloated with underdeveloped characters. But I have to say, in 10 Years, the large cast isn’t a hindrance at all.

    Yes, there are some stories that I would have preferred to see more of over others (Oscar Isaac and Kate Mara’s chemistry loaded Reeves and Elise, for one), but I felt like the movie gave a fair amount of time to each subplot, making each character interesting enough that I never felt the need to skip past any of them.

    The dialogue felt natural, and the actors had enough laid-back rapport with one another that it was easy to believe they had all known one another for years. There are some humorous and touching moments as well, and admittedly, it did trigger a bit of nostalgia for me, though my own high school reunion had nowhere near as many beautiful people as Lake Howell’s.

    Given my constant disappointment with similar flicks, 10 Years was a nice surprise. It’s an entertaining movie with an impressive cast. And are you really going to say no to watching Oscar Isaac sing? No, you’re not.

    Watched: 09/14/2018
    Notable Song: Never Had by Oscar Isaac

    Rating: