It Had to Be You

this movie isn't entirely awful...it had a decent premise and has a few good performances - it also has some pretty bad ones...

the lead actor, michael vartan seems uncomfortable during the entire film. stiff as a board. and not altogether convincing.

can someone please tell me what the deal was with tracy the hairdresser? she goes back and forth between english/newyork accents. choose one and stick with it!

how can one not cringe at the "...i was listening to sinatra" "you like sinatra?" "i love frank!" exchange... not to mention "you go to cha chas? i love cha chas!" you know the ending six minutes into the movie and it's a painful journey to get there... if natasha hentridge didn't deliver such a good performance as well as some of the secondary characters i'd rate this a 3 but they bump it to an almost watchable 5.

one only has so many hours in this lifetime...do you really want to waste two of yours?

Rom-coms are notoriously hard to get right, when one such genre piece is all but a direct to DVD offering it really doesn't bode well for a good film. It Had To Be You isn't a great film, but it's the sort of sweet and harmless piece that fills a time slot when you are stuck for a viewing one afternoon.

Natasha Henstridge {Anna} and Michael Vartan {Charlie} play two pretty people, who are soon to be married to other people, who get to know each other in the course of planning their respective weddings in the Big Apple. Cue pretty people clearly meant to be together unable to do so out of loyalty to their respective, and clearly wrong for them, intended aisle walking partners. Cue best friends involved, gags and set ups come and go and the ending is never really in doubt. There's even time for some demon exorcising thrown in for added emotional impact.

If that sounds cheekily simple in summary? Then that's because it's befitting the film. It's a simple tale that's been told many times before, both better and worse than this. Vartan and Nat fail to generate much chemistry yet remain charming throughout, and the comedy is good enough to raise a smile or two. Particularly from Michael Rispoli & Olivia d'Abo as the couple's best friends. It's decently shot and unobtrusively directed, while that obvious ending still has the ability to warm the cockles of even the coldest of hearts. Should have been better for sure, but by no means a time waster in the basic sense of the saying. 5.5/10

Honestly, it was painful watching this movie, for two reasons.

The First is pretty obvious: the movie was entirely predictable. I mean, really, with the cheesy lines and ridiculously out-of-place, underdeveloped sub-plot, could there have been any ending other than the one that happened.

Second, the dialogue sucked. It was so bad, it made the actors look uncomfortable (or maybe they just sucked). Either way, it did not give me the feeling I was watching a movie; I thought I was watching friends of mine who were bad at acting read off of a script, and not really understand what they were saying.

Do not see this movie.

I just can't understand the negative comments about this film. Yes it is a typical boy-meets-girl romance but it is done with such flair and polish that the time just flies by. Henstridge (talk about winning the gene-pool lottery!) is as magnetic and alluring as ever (who says the golden age of cinema is dead?) and Vartan holds his own.

There is simmering chemistry between the two leads; the film is most alive when they share a scene - lots! It is done so well that you find yourself willing them to get together...

Ignore the negative comments - if you are feeling a bit blue, watch this flick, you will feel so much better. If you are already happy, then you will be euphoric.

(PS: I am 33, Male, from the UK and a hopeless romantic still searching for his Princess...)

It was a happy accident to stumble across this movie while channel surfing. The New York setting (a very effective use of locations not always used in the movies) got me, and the characters held on to me. It was a sort of formulaic plot, but that didn't matter so much, as it was a film with people that you could like and emphasize with.

Having been familiar with Natasha Henstridge only with her Science Fiction and TV roles, it was a major revelation to see her in a gentle, likable part. I hope that she gets other roles like this.