REVIEW - Catch and Release

Written & Directed by Sussanah Grant
PG -13 - 124 minutes
Released October 20, 2006

I may have mentioned before, as an agoraphobic film critic one is always at the mercy of that soul kind enough to bring movies in to watch. In my case it is my wife who does my dirty work (so to speak), and so I occasionally fall victim to the inevitable chick flick. Catch and Release most definitely falls into that category, and I enjoy a good chick flick from time to time and I have to admit I enjoyed this film quite a bit.

The worst thing I have to say about this movie is that it follows a tired and overused formula. When you break it down to the basics, Hollywood only knows how to tell one kind of love story: A couple falls in love, the lovers separate in order to necessitate a third act, the lovers reconcile thanks to the heroic effort of one (or sometimes both) to save the relationship.

I think I just described the plot of about five thousand movies. This is the basic structure of Catch and Release but there are a few things that kept it interesting and watchable. The premise (a woman spends what should have been her wedding day at the funeral of her fiance) is enough to keep the entire film teetering on the edge of being wildly depressing, but manages enough humor and warmth to keep it from slipping into the abyss.

It doesn't hurt that there is a strong Kevin Smith presence here. For me, the most biased critic on the Internet, that makes the movie right there. I was also mildly surprised at how the mother in-law and "other woman" turned out. I like characters who don't pan out as you might expect them to.

Jennifer Garner was not too bad. I have not seen any of her movies prior to this one, and I didn't watch Alias so this was really my first exposure. The rest of the cast managed some decent chemistry. In a movie like this it's the supporting ensemble that does the heavy lifting and I think they did an admirable job here. Although when someone can explain to me how the love interest could ever be named "Fritz" I will probably understand this movie a lot better. Every time I heard the name spoken I imagined Jennifer Garner kissing a reject from the Von Trapp family (liederhossen and all).

Like I said, I enjoyed this movie. I didn't love it but I sure as hell liked it. For that, Catch and Release gets a "Mostly Decent" on the Mr. Blunderson scale.