Z/Web

Predictable but fun romantic comedy. The “plot” is a forced gimmick: a female columnist for a women’s magazine is going to write about dating tips in reverse: what not to do. She’s going to date a guy and do all the wrong things and lose him within ten days. Unfortunately, the guy is an advertising executive who’s just made a wager to win a big account: he’s going to prove what a good salesman he is by making a woman fall in love with him in ten days. Yes, this is absurd, and yes there are enough coincidences here to shake the foundation of reality, but you go along with it because you want this couple to succeed. Of course you know from the first frame that the two will actually fall in love, which makes their games that much more amusing. The girl does all the horrible things that normally drive men away — smothers him, decorates his apartment with stuffed animals, fills his medicine cabinet with feminine hiegene products, has insane mood swings, etc. — and the guy takes it all like a pro, still pretending to love her. Since we as viewers know both sides of the story their interaction is doubly amusing. For instance, we know the woman eats meat because we see her eating a hamburger in one scene, but later she pretends she’s a vegetarian after the guy prepares a wonderful meal of grilled lamb for her. In the end, of course, all the lies are revealed and the truth comes out, everyone gets their promotions, and the couple live happily ever after. Light-hearted and surprisingly fun considering it’s predictability.

Author: Antwone Fisher

Director: Denzel Washington

Not quite what I expected; it was both more impactful and less fancy than I anticipated. I was expecting a moving story about a trouble young black man with a complex history, and I got that, but while I’m not trying to knock his past, it wasn’t as troubled as I expected. Yeah, his mother abandoned him and he lived with foster parents who abused him, but it didn’t seem as bad as many people suffer. But in a way, that was a key part of the film because it was saying it doesn’t matter what you suffered, the point is that you did, and how it effected you is most important. In the case of Antwone Fisher, he rose above his past, learned to understand and control his anger, and eventually made peace with his family. While the film’s leisurely paced, it surprisingly doesn’t feel slow. Terrific performances and interesting characters. The final scene when he’s surrounded by relatives he didn’t know he had is awesome and extremely touching. A terrific film. It’s not overly dramatic like most Hollywood productions, but simple and realistic, much like the real Antwone Fisher who wrote the screenplay based on his life experiences. He’s a blunt, honest guy who doesn’t put on airs or try to magnify himself, and that comes across both in the character as portrayed on film, and in the unassuming story and script. I was expecting more of a weepy Oscar-contending film, but what I got was simply a great story about a remarkable man who just wanted to escape his troubled past and make a life for himself, and did it.