This film is nothing to write home about, but it has a few shiny flourishes. The thing to remember is that this film was aimed at the teen age and college comic book crowd. It wasn't meant to be anything more than that. And when you look at it in that context you find those bright moments that Reitman was trying to give the audience.
This isn't adult fare gone bad as it was presented for adults. It's teenage fast-food cinema that's got more production values and gloss than the teen-sex romps I grew up with; "Spring Break" or "One Crazy Summer" as examples.
Yeah, Thurman's character has got issues. But she's supposed to. This is a teenage guy film about a comic book guy's perspective on women. The target audience is probably the biggest item to criticize, because if there are enough people (immature men) who fall into the category of feeling helpless and powerless against women when in a relationship, then maybe there's something wrong with society to allow such a population to explode and support this film. Yeah, that's kind of high minded and somewhat near leaving the topic of the film itself, but I think it's important to contemplate.
All in all I didn't mind the film, but did find it ridiculous and mildly amusing here and there. Yes, a better film could have been made for the adult dating scene, and we could argue about whether that should have been greenlit as opposed to what we have, and yes, it probably would have been a better film. But take this film for what it is, a time waster. A film to put on the DVD player as you hit the "sleep" button on your TV.
Watch if only so inclined.
