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Hitch review
2005.03.19 — Entertainment | Movies | Movie Reviews | by Andrew Cole
Hitch helps the hopeless. [official site] |
This being the first crap season of the year, I wasn't expecting much from Hitch, the new pre-spring comedy. The cast is lively and the dialog funny, even if the mushy parts fall flat.
Will Smith is a dating consultant hired to help Kevin James win the girl of his dreams: a beautiful heiress (the surprisingly charming Amber Valletta) who happens to be a client of his accounting firm.
Eva Mendes is fine as the cynical gossip columnist assigned to cover the heiress and who stumbles onto Smith's game at the same time he stumbles into her heart. It's the kind of double-action coincidence plot that romantic comedy writers are fond of. Hey, it's only Manhattan. How could these two people not meet?
Hey, it's only Manhattan. How could these two people not meet? |
Coincidences aren't limited to the principals, however. In fact, Adam Arkin, as Mendes's boss, seems positively precognitive in his ability to wander into a scene just as something awkward is said. He's a great character actor, tho, and we forgive him and wish he'd been there earlier to comment wryly on the part he didn't hear.
The film was directed by Andy Tennant, the genius behind "The Amy Fisher Story" TV movie (you remember; it was the Drew Barrymore Amy Fisher TV movie, not the Alyssa Milano Amy Fisher TV movie). Of course, he's worked since then, directing Fools Rush In, Ever After, and Sweet Home Alabama. And still he walks the streets a free man.
[Smith] makes up for the flatness of Eva Mendes (metaphorically-speaking, of course; have you seen the woman?). |
It is written by newcomer Kevin Bisch, a promising talent who, we hope, will get some help writing drama. A first bit of advice: people who shout their love angrily in public as a way of settling an argument get restraining orders taken out against them.
For his part, Smith is as charming and funny as we'd hope. He walks a fine line between cool when he needs to be and goofy as hell when the script calls for it. To his credit, it works wonderfully, and he makes up for the flatness of Eva Mendes (metaphorically-speaking, of course; have you seen the woman?). Kevin James shows that he is not just a TV star. He's big and broad (again, have you seen him?) but he holds his own against Smith in numerous mentoring scenes that provide the most laughs.
...Smith and Mendes [have] the requisite falling out mandated by the Romantic Comedy Storyline Act of 1931 |
The script falls apart when Smith and Mendes, having had the requisite falling out mandated by the Romantic Comedy Storyline Act of 1931, start shouting at each other. None of it is especially believable, either in their anger (they throw food at one another) or how they make up (they shout at each other some more in a public place). It's the kind of problem that is only possible when one person is mad at the other for something but won't actually say what it is.
Is screenwriter Bisch so young that Jerry Maguire is the only "classic" he can think of? |
Romantic comedies are full of these sorts of misunderstandings, of course, so as an audience we don't expect the male protagonist to actually be guilty of anything. But, by the time these things happen, we're already fairly charmed by the likeability of all the characters. There's no villain here except, perhaps, pride and foolishness.
There's a strange moment in Hitch when the Mendes character consoles herself by watching Jerry Maguire. Is screenwriter Bisch so young that Jerry Maguire is the only "classic" he can think of? I hated that movie. This one is pretty good.
f e e d b a c k
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