CATCH AND RELEASE (2007) **1/2 Jennifer Garner, Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis, Kevin Smith, Sam Jaeger, Fiona Shaw, Joshua Friesen. (Dir: Susannah Grant)
Jennifer is a great "catch" and the film isn't half bad either.
Jennifer Garner is the ideal girl next door, beautiful in that freshly-scrubbed all- American girl type, but with a twinge of knowing naughtiness and playful fecklessness which she imbued to the nth degree in her serious ass-kicking ABC series "Alias" as a bodacious agent with pouting bee-stung lips and a lethal double-round-house to the nether regions.
Her more feminine wiles on display to the hilt in this surprisingly charming romantic dramedy with her character Gray Wheeler, a young woman facing a sudden tragedy, her fiancée is killed in a horrible sporting event accident crushing her upcoming nuptials in full blossom. Instead of a wedding she now has a funeral to deal with, and in the opening sequence her pain is immediate as well as the difficulty of making sense of what to do from this point on.
However all is not lost in the sense she is alone. Quite the contrary; her betrothed's fun-loving childhood friends are there to see her through including Sam (filmmaker Smith who steals the film with his smartly delivered one-liners and the ongoing running gag of the stout fellow in various modes of unkempt solvent shoving something down his endless gullet to high comic effect), who offers pearls of wisdom from the designer tea he works for; Dennis (Jaeger), the more level-headed of the trio, who harbors a not-so-secret crush on the young widow; and more significantly Fritz (Olyphant, late of the stupendous "Deadwood" on HBO), a voracious ladies' man transplanted back to their Boulder, CO environs from La-La- land where his stint as a budding filmmaker is really more of a hobby than his photography taking. All three men are in love with Grey (and can you blame them!) but each has their own philosophy in how her grief should ultimately lead to a happier existence.
Along the way sorting through her dearly departed's affairs she learns he has a $1M nest egg in a seemingly secret account and discovers something more personal: his doling out monies to a woman in LA, a masseuse named Maureen (the always good-naturedly daffy Lewis) who has a 4 year old son (!) Let the melodrama commence!
Written and directed by Susannah Grant (who makes her directorial debut here) does an able job overall with the usual formulaic expectations: overheard conversations misleading the truth; real-love triumphing; friendship & relationships put to the tests, etc. etc. But the cast makes it a winning diversion and a lot of fun. Great interplay between Garner as 'one- of-the-guys' and the three dudes making a fine buffet to her nubile attractiveness. There is undeniable chemistry between Garner and Olyphant (who I swear to God if you close your eyes sounds like a rakish Robert Wagner!) who effortlessly provides the sex with aplomb, and tastefully so.
The only problem is how the pieces all fall into place relatively with little effort or dismay considering how her fiancée was killed and all and how they come to accept the flaky 'other woman' with barely a ruffle of feathers. Maybe that's a bit refreshing or I'm a tad too cynical (or maybe I was just hoping for a cat fight).
Grant does allow some refreshing touches, namely making her characters likable yet flawed and not jerks, which so easily could've been the case in many plot points (i.e. Garner's mother-in-law-to-be has the inklings of villainy but really deep down shows she is not the heartless wench she appears when things get a little dicey). There are also equal amounts of chemistry between the trio of male friends who are all looking out for the best interests of Garner's character (as well as their own well-meaning agendas overall without being creepy or downright chauvinistic).
But it truly is Garner's showcase to depict her girl-next-door sexiness not unlike America's sweetheart Julia Roberts: a gal whose femininity and sexuality are not in disposable even if she is one of the guys.
The film is worth a look at to see how one can find their happiness even if it comes with little burden.
Jennifer is a great "catch" and the film isn't half bad either.
Jennifer Garner is the ideal girl next door, beautiful in that freshly-scrubbed all- American girl type, but with a twinge of knowing naughtiness and playful fecklessness which she imbued to the nth degree in her serious ass-kicking ABC series "Alias" as a bodacious agent with pouting bee-stung lips and a lethal double-round-house to the nether regions.
Her more feminine wiles on display to the hilt in this surprisingly charming romantic dramedy with her character Gray Wheeler, a young woman facing a sudden tragedy, her fiancée is killed in a horrible sporting event accident crushing her upcoming nuptials in full blossom. Instead of a wedding she now has a funeral to deal with, and in the opening sequence her pain is immediate as well as the difficulty of making sense of what to do from this point on.
However all is not lost in the sense she is alone. Quite the contrary; her betrothed's fun-loving childhood friends are there to see her through including Sam (filmmaker Smith who steals the film with his smartly delivered one-liners and the ongoing running gag of the stout fellow in various modes of unkempt solvent shoving something down his endless gullet to high comic effect), who offers pearls of wisdom from the designer tea he works for; Dennis (Jaeger), the more level-headed of the trio, who harbors a not-so-secret crush on the young widow; and more significantly Fritz (Olyphant, late of the stupendous "Deadwood" on HBO), a voracious ladies' man transplanted back to their Boulder, CO environs from La-La- land where his stint as a budding filmmaker is really more of a hobby than his photography taking. All three men are in love with Grey (and can you blame them!) but each has their own philosophy in how her grief should ultimately lead to a happier existence.
Along the way sorting through her dearly departed's affairs she learns he has a $1M nest egg in a seemingly secret account and discovers something more personal: his doling out monies to a woman in LA, a masseuse named Maureen (the always good-naturedly daffy Lewis) who has a 4 year old son (!) Let the melodrama commence!
Written and directed by Susannah Grant (who makes her directorial debut here) does an able job overall with the usual formulaic expectations: overheard conversations misleading the truth; real-love triumphing; friendship & relationships put to the tests, etc. etc. But the cast makes it a winning diversion and a lot of fun. Great interplay between Garner as 'one- of-the-guys' and the three dudes making a fine buffet to her nubile attractiveness. There is undeniable chemistry between Garner and Olyphant (who I swear to God if you close your eyes sounds like a rakish Robert Wagner!) who effortlessly provides the sex with aplomb, and tastefully so.
The only problem is how the pieces all fall into place relatively with little effort or dismay considering how her fiancée was killed and all and how they come to accept the flaky 'other woman' with barely a ruffle of feathers. Maybe that's a bit refreshing or I'm a tad too cynical (or maybe I was just hoping for a cat fight).
Grant does allow some refreshing touches, namely making her characters likable yet flawed and not jerks, which so easily could've been the case in many plot points (i.e. Garner's mother-in-law-to-be has the inklings of villainy but really deep down shows she is not the heartless wench she appears when things get a little dicey). There are also equal amounts of chemistry between the trio of male friends who are all looking out for the best interests of Garner's character (as well as their own well-meaning agendas overall without being creepy or downright chauvinistic).
But it truly is Garner's showcase to depict her girl-next-door sexiness not unlike America's sweetheart Julia Roberts: a gal whose femininity and sexuality are not in disposable even if she is one of the guys.
The film is worth a look at to see how one can find their happiness even if it comes with little burden.