The Romantics

Gosh there are some harsh critics here (or maybe I'm too easy). Not a great film but not that dreadful. Still worth watching. Weird ending though.

I wanted to like this movie, I usually enjoy small character studies, but sadly this film was a disappointment. Maybe it was too much to expect Katie Holmes to carry the story. Unfortunately her lack of range and/or talent is obvious in this film. And, Anna Pacquin, who is so good and fiery in True Blood, is left with little to do except be a bitch. Malin Ackerman plays a riff on her 27 Dresses role. Candice Bergn is mostly absent in the film. Finally, Josh Duhamel stumbles through the movie with the same stunned look on his face for the whole film. It is hard to imagine either woman in this film would be attracted to him. Character driven films are only enjoyable when we learn and understand the motivation behind the characters, or when we watch them grow and evolve. In this film we learn little of the character's background story or motivations, and there certainly is no growth. Overall the film is a sad mess, and I will not be recommending it to my friends.

Was it... love, was it tragedy...was it a bad episode of cheap series...or was it just nothing...Everybody blames the actors, but how can you act with such cliché script, that is leading to nowhere. I am truly sorry for some of these actors, because I honestly like them, but this movie is beyond meaningless. I was waiting the whole time for a little bit of sophistication at least at the end, but well...nothing. If you want to see Ana Paquin with a green mask on her face, Elija Wood acting drunk and some guys running naked...that you can see, but nothing more sensible. What I am sorry for is Candice Bergen, wonderful actress, such unfortunate role.

What starts out as a decent romantic comedy quickly devolves into a self-indulgent joke about whiny, privileged white kids who (gasp) don't know what to do with their lives! It wouldn't be so insulting if it didn't masquerade as a film about academia and intelligence, yet feature such astoundingly sophomoric scripting. Any juice that can be squeezed from the "post-college malaise" hokum is soured by cliché and archetype. And its pseudo hipster posing (the music and costumes shout indie cool as loud as they possibly can) don't cover up the fact that this movie has no substance to match its style.

Performances are fine, but not spectacular, apologies owed to the supporting actors who don't have characters to hang a portrayal around. Malin Akerman and Adam Brody stand out because of their jovial personalities and familiarity, but the rest of the cast struggles to stay afloat in a sea of underdevelopment.

The great conflict at the middle of the picture is a love triangle between Katie Holmes, Anna Paquin, and Josh Duhamel, but you care so little about these three people that you'd just as soon see them end up alone. As for realism and stakes, ask yourself this: have you ever thought of Josh Duhamel as a brooding academic?

In summation: a mainstream romantic dram-com dressed up like an indie film that sins thrice: it's boring, clichéd, and insignificant. A shame considering all of the young talent involved.

Since Galt Niederhoffer wrote the book and screenplay and directed this movie, she has nobody to blame for its terrible awfulness but herself. The screenplay has lots of boring gaps in which this supposedly bright, witty group wanders around without saying much at all. Although they are all supposed to be college buddies, the obvious ten-year age gap between Anna Paquin and Josh Duhamel makes this proposition laughable.

Katie Holmes acting here is so bad that it makes Josh Duhamel look like DeNiro, which is saying something. The whole movie hinges on the chemistry between the two leads, and there is none whatsoever. Sidekicks Jeremy Strong and Rebecca Lawrence are virtual non-entities. Candice Bergen does the same geriatric reprise of Murphy Brown that she recently did on the TV series "House," with no better results. If Elijah Wood was going for creepy he succeeded, but to no great purpose.

That leaves only the performances of Anna Paquin, Malin Akerman, and Adam Brody to save this stinker. Akerman is the standout of the three, and it's only when she is on screen do you have the sense that something interesting could happen. Unfortunately, she not on screen all that much.