Michael's Movie Grade: B
Review: A delightful romantic comedy.
We are all used to the basic story of romantic comedies and this one follows that story to a tee. Woman thinks she is love with a guy, who is really a bit of jerk, but meets another guy somewhere else and falls for him, learning she was never in love with the other guy. Yes that is the basic story here. The film also uses the plot device of the woman meeting the other guy over the mail (or Email) familiar from such films as The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old Summertime and You've Got Mail. With a story that we have seen before, the movie needed to work on pure charm. Luckily that's just where this movie successeds. This movie is filled with the easygoing natural charm that you wish was in all these romantic comedies. There's something just so likable about watching this story unfold, even if we know what is going to happen. The characters are very likable and the performances from the cast are so natural and believable. Rose Byrne and Ethan Hawke have fantastic chemistry and the truth is it is just nice to watch them share the screen. We believe every moment of their relationship and are always hoping for the best. Just because the romance is really sweet and charming doesn't mean the humor is lacking. While this may not be a movie that will having you laughing your head off all the way through, most of the humor works very well. Watching our main character's boyfriend (Chris O'Dowd) giving monologues (technically online V-logs) about an obscure rocker his is obsessed with is downright hilarious. It is even funnier because any of us who have ever been obsessed with anything see ourselves in these scenes and see how ridiculous we have been at times. This is an absurd story in many ways and the script (by Jim Taylor, Tamara Jenkins and Evgenia Peretz (sister of the movie's director Jesse Peretz))knows this and makes fun of itself in very funny ways. However the kidding never goes too far as to cut into the believability of the story.
In a movie where much of the story revolves around music, good music is essential. Luckily that is provided here. As well as featuring songs by The Stone Poneys, the Pretenders and more (these songs fit in with the film like a charm), there are also quite a few original songs here. As Ethan Hawke's character was supposed to have created an album that our main character's boyfriend is obsessed with it needs to be good enough for us to believe that someone could fall so much in love with it. Three years were spent trying to make these songs are good as possible. These songs were written by seasoned professionals such as Ryan Adams, Robyn Hitchcock, M. Ward and Conor Oberst. They were all supervised by Nathan Larson and Marguerite Phillips. The result was a success as these songs are fantastic. To make matters even better we get to hear two of them in full form over the end credits. Leaving the film listening to such great music is not a bad way to end at all.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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