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February 2, 2007 > Arts & Entertainment > Catch and Release garners yawn, not laughs

Catch and Release garners yawn, not laughs

By Risa Gordon | Thresher staff

Jennifer Garner’s newest chick flick has only two redeeming qualities: beautiful Colorado scenery and occasionally amusing comedy, mostly from Kevin Smith (Jay and Silent Bob) as Sam, in an uncharacteristically non-Silent Bob role.

Director/screenwriter Susannah Grant, who has a solid repertoire of screenwriting to her credit (Erin Brockovich, Charlotte’s Web), disappoints with a story that attempts to balance too many plots, succeeding only in presenting each of them superficially. The movie brings up thought-provoking issues — infidelity, paternity and grief — but glosses over them in a manner unusual even for light romantic comedy. The actors seem to realize the one-dimensional nature of the script and thus fail to put in effort, particularly in their portrayals of grief.

The movie’s first sour note sets the tone for the remainder of the film: Fritz (The Girl Next Door’s Timothy Olyphant), a friend of Gray’s (13 Going on 30’s Jennifer Garner) dead fiance, noisily hooks up with a caterer in the bathroom. Gray happens to be in the same bathroom, hiding from the mourners on what should have been her wedding day. Although the storyline attempts to redeem his character, this early behavior tempers his appeal for the remainder of the movie.

The script soon degenerates when Gray discovers her fiance fathered a son with the kooky new-age massage therapist Maureen (Starsky & Hutch’s Juliette Lewis). Maureen shows up at Gray’s Colorado home with one of the brattiest on-screen tots ever (newcomer Joshua Friesen). When Gray’s housemates, who are also her former fiance’s friends, welcome Maureen and her son into their lives, hilarity is supposed to ensue.

Instead, the script suffers from inexplicable inconsistencies. Given the long-running theme of the betrayal of Gray by her fiance, it is incomprehensible that, late in the movie, she would gleefully joke that her friend Dennis’ (Lucky Number Slevin’s Sam Jaeger) secret is that he is having an affair with a married woman. And the blossoming romance between Sam and Maureen seems to be solely for the convenience of pairing two comedic actors.

Ostensibly, the movie attempts to follow the grief-coping and romantic escapades of Gray and her dead fiance’s friends, but instead fails miserably. When Gray hops into bed with Fritz, one is tempted to look for signs of inadequate grief coping. But in this movie, everything is as it seems on the surface. Similarly, Sam’s suicide attempt and subsequent explanation of guilt take up less than five minutes of screen time before becoming comic relief fodder — a missed opportunity for the script to delve meaningfully into a difficult topic.

The one-dimensional characters inhibit the audience’s ability to sympathize even when caring, boring Dennis painfully confesses his love to Gray. The audience likely has more pressing questions in mind than whether Gray or Dennis will find love. For example: If I leave the theater now, can I somehow recover from the hour of my life I have already wasted here?

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