Catherine Brown (Allison Miller) is stuck in her life which has her silently screaming. She has long abandoned her dreams of singing. She lost her parents early in life. Her boyfriend Garret (Jason Ritter) is a self-obsessed actor. She hates her job as a musician rep and then is forced to wrangle hard-partying Jody Sinclair (Brittany Snow). When Jody accuses her of assault, she gets fired. She comes home early to find Garret cheating on her. She's sleeping on her friend Ryan's couch. She decides to go upstate to live in her childhood home in rural Woodstock. Emily (Rumer Willis) is the tough local bartender and Noah Bernstein (James Wolk) is the cute doctor. On the drunken first night at the bar, she proclaims her love to Noah. Coffee shop owner Lee Ann (Katey Sagal) nurtures her music dreams.
Miller and Wolk are a perfectly cute rom-com couple. They are both photogenic and sweet-natured although they are more like sidekick material. I want to like this very much for them. This is director Rita Merson's debut. The newcomer doesn't have all the skills to make this work. The timing is not there. The jokes are lacking. I'm surprised at the number of solid actors in the cast. Even the minor roles have familiar names. It doesn't make this good and may actually hinder the small town feel needed for Woodstock. It feels like Hollywood trying to pretend to be small town. The same can be said of the record company. It's some kind of Hollywood facsimile of a record company from the recent past. A lot of this movie falls flat despite my desire to root for the couple. Even at its best, this is a formulaic rom-com. It's not until Forever Sex when I finally get my first laugh. I still don't understand Emily's motive. This tries to be a fun quirky rom-com. It tries.
