The actors in this movie are uniformly good, even in small supporting roles, but the screenplay, direction and score are stupid and very, very offensive.
This is a romantic comedy, and each of the three main characters is assigned to either romance or comedy until the very end, when everything that came before is thrown out the window so that a completely unbelievable ending can be stuck on. Not that anything that came before was believable -- it wasn't -- but the ending is even more absurd.
Marc is the romance character; Cynthia and Robert are the comedy characters. Marc is NEVER ridiculed. Everything he does is perfect -- his face and body are perfect, his hair is perfect, his workout is perfect, his flirting is perfect, his pickup lines are perfect. And he is ALWAYS taken seriously, as if everything he does is done by a god who bestows favors as he chooses and is sought after, lusted after, followed and worshiped by everybody else in the movie. "What will Marc do?", or, maybe, "Whom will Marc choose?" is the question that drives the stupid plot from beginning to end.
In sharp and extraordinarily offensive contrast, Cynthia and Robert are ALWAYS held up for the audience's ridicule -- whether it's Cynthia's gross overeating and obsessive quest to go straight from college to Tina Brown's right hand, or Robert's goofy clothes and impossible, humiliating crushes on men WAY too hot ever to notice him. There are countless extreme closeups of Cynthia's fat, manic, over-made-up face and anxious, needy Robert in his thick glasses and dorky hat -- accompanied by clownish music that's like the laugh track on an old sit-com.
Compounding the problem is that the actor who plays Robert is a hundred times more attractive and sexier than the actor who plays Marc is. I'd choose Robert any day over Marc -- but the writer and director are determined to ridicule Robert and glorify Marc, so they force it to be that way with heavy-handed wardrobe, direction and music. I didn't buy it for a second. I always wanted Robert; I never wanted Marc.
I was going to give this a few stars just for the earnest and competent actors, but I can't do that. The movie is so offensive that I must give it the lowest rating I can.
This is a romantic comedy, and each of the three main characters is assigned to either romance or comedy until the very end, when everything that came before is thrown out the window so that a completely unbelievable ending can be stuck on. Not that anything that came before was believable -- it wasn't -- but the ending is even more absurd.
Marc is the romance character; Cynthia and Robert are the comedy characters. Marc is NEVER ridiculed. Everything he does is perfect -- his face and body are perfect, his hair is perfect, his workout is perfect, his flirting is perfect, his pickup lines are perfect. And he is ALWAYS taken seriously, as if everything he does is done by a god who bestows favors as he chooses and is sought after, lusted after, followed and worshiped by everybody else in the movie. "What will Marc do?", or, maybe, "Whom will Marc choose?" is the question that drives the stupid plot from beginning to end.
In sharp and extraordinarily offensive contrast, Cynthia and Robert are ALWAYS held up for the audience's ridicule -- whether it's Cynthia's gross overeating and obsessive quest to go straight from college to Tina Brown's right hand, or Robert's goofy clothes and impossible, humiliating crushes on men WAY too hot ever to notice him. There are countless extreme closeups of Cynthia's fat, manic, over-made-up face and anxious, needy Robert in his thick glasses and dorky hat -- accompanied by clownish music that's like the laugh track on an old sit-com.
Compounding the problem is that the actor who plays Robert is a hundred times more attractive and sexier than the actor who plays Marc is. I'd choose Robert any day over Marc -- but the writer and director are determined to ridicule Robert and glorify Marc, so they force it to be that way with heavy-handed wardrobe, direction and music. I didn't buy it for a second. I always wanted Robert; I never wanted Marc.
I was going to give this a few stars just for the earnest and competent actors, but I can't do that. The movie is so offensive that I must give it the lowest rating I can.