>>REVIEW
CATCH AND RELEASE
STARRING Jennifer Garner, Timothy Olyphant, Kevin Smith and Juliette Lewis
DIRECTED BY Susannah Grant
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The film opens with a montage of beautiful flowers meant for a wedding day, but as we follow the narration we realize that the nuptials have been replaced with a funeral.
Jennifer Garner plays Gray Wheeler, a woman who just lost her fiancé. In the most basic and cliché terms, she tries to start over and, in doing so, discovers a lot about the man she loved and comes to terms with who she is. No offence to Garner, but nobody would go to see that movie, which is why you add Kevin Smith, Juliette Lewis and Timothy Olyphant for some comedy and sex appeal.
The trailer for this one had me at the Columbia logo, when I saw it for the first time over a year ago. If things had played out the way the trailer indicated, even in the chronology the preview suggested, I might have enjoyed it more. Don’t misunderstand – I don’t long for predictable, rather plausible.Because Catch and Release was written and directed by Susannah Grant, the woman who penned Erin Brockovich and 28 Days, I expected a stronger story structure. The story, the cast and the dialogue are all there, but something is missing. That something is organization. It’s as if Grant had too many good lines for one script and was in love with too many scenes to fit into one film, so we wind up watching a lot of bits and pieces that don’t advance the plot. With pacing like this, I can’t help but think that it would have made a successful TV series.
I could write something cheesy like "the scenery is the true star of the film," which is set in Boulder, Colorado – but I won’t. The setting is lovely (shot partly in Vancouver) and is the perfect backdrop for Garner’s wholesome presence and charming poise. Olyphant plays well as Fritz, the Hollywood-director friend of the deceased. But Smith, who basically plays himself (finishing most of his lines with "sir"), is essential comic relief as Sam, another close friend of Gray’s former fiancé. However, when Kevin Smith’s acting is the most enjoyable aspect of your film, you might be in a speck of trouble.
The studio held on to this one for a long time before actually releasing it. That says more than Kevin Smith could say in one evening, sir. |
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