Saw this movie on a lark and was pleasantly surprised by the story telling, acting and a film that didn’t go too far to the absurd. It does follow the convention where a series of events causes one involved to overreact badly, sabotaging what they have built up in their life in the process, then spends the rest of the time coming back to a happy medium. With Ryan Reynolds being cast, I was concerned that his over-the-top acting would get in the way, but the writing prevents this romcom from devolving into an absurd farce and comes out as a good film entry on the resume.
The movie opens at a wedding, where the groom is about to overreact to news he received about his soon-to-be wife and Ryan Reynolds (Definitely, Maybe, playing what I consider his best on screen performance to date) steps in to calm the groom down. As Frank Allen, father of the bride, he gives the groom a choice to either allow him to tell a story or to walk out of his daughter’s life forever. Wouldn’t be much of a movie if he walked, now would it?
The story unfolds in a series of flashbacks, but centers on a series of incidents that almost cost him his marriage and life-long friends. As a man with OCD tendencies, Frank has the perfect life, the perfect wife, and a career as a Time-Management professional. On a day where he is to give a conference, a chain of events causes him to question his marriage, his child’s paternity, and what he wants to do with his life. The movie builds towards an awakening that not everything in life can be controlled and that one’s choices when the unexpected happens can have disastrous consequences.
Emily Mortimer (Lars and the Real Girl) and Stuart Townsend (The Best Man) play the other leads as Frank’s wife Susan and best friend Buddy, respectively, and have their sides of the story told throughout the film to balance out Frank’s overreaction. The cast is rounded out with performances by Constance Zimmer, Sarah Chalke, and Matreya Fedor.
I enjoyed this film, loved some of the ideas presented (choosing a marriage partner based on the name of their junk, the idea of lecture circuit groupies, and using lists to dictate actions, among many others) and was pleasantly entertained. Recommend highly.
Filmography links and data courtesy of The Internet Movie Database.
