A Lot Like Love

Cast: Ashton Kutcher, Amanda Peet, Kathryn Hahn, Kal Penn, Ali Larter, Taryn Manning, Gabriel Mann, Jeremy Sisto
Director: Nigel Cole
Synopsis:
On a flight from Los Angeles to New York, Oliver (Kutcher) and Emily (Peet) make a connection, only to decide that they are poorly suited to be together. Over the next seven years, however, they are reunited time and time again, they go from being acquaintances to close friends to ... lovers? (taken from imdb.com)

Review:
Upon the first glance on trailer or synopsis of A Lot Like Love, I can't help but feel that this movie is a lot like When Harry Met Sally (the #1 romantic comedy ever made?). Other romantic comedy tend to be similar to WHMS one way or another but it's just that A Lot Like Love is so similar, it wouldn't be wrong to call this movie a remake. But this doesn't make this movie bad. In fact, as romantic comedy goes, it's pretty watchable. It's all thanks to a surprisingly good performance by Ashton Kutcher and a not-so-surprising but somewhat original and poignant plot development that occured in later part of the movie. Ashton Kutcher, better known as Mr Demi Moore or that obnoxious host from MTV's Punk'd, acted really well as Oliver, despite a few "off" moments, bringing some vulnerability to the character. It's not that he is like a Billy Crystal already, but he could be in the future if he wants to work harder. In many scenes, I actually believed that he was not Ashton the actor but the character Oliver. Now that I've seen him, I'm not so surprised that the great Cameron Crowe once considered Ashton for the lead of his upcoming movie Elizabethtown. I can't give the same amount of praise to Amanda Peet though. Although she brings a lot of sexiness to the role and does not do anything seriously bad, I found something lacking. Perhaps it's just that the character wasn't really that 'good'. Thankfully, the chemistry between both leads are good, which is key to the success of a romantic comedy like this.

Another thing that makes this movie stands out a little is a somewhat unexpected event that occured later in the movie. For the first half or so, the movie played out like a typical rom-com. However, things gets subtly bleaker and harder for the pair and then that event (don't worry - nobody dies, nobody gets pregant) just happened which makes the movie somewhat compelling (I will discuss this below - spoilers warning). It also helps that by the time it happens, the movie's has become pretty serious and actually works as a good movie. It's just a little too bad that the movie starts and ends like a typical rom-com. Not that you can help it, but there is some potential for this movie to push things a bit further towards the end. Nevertheless, while never reaching WHMS level, at least this movie also never reaches the badness level of any Freddie Prinze Jr rom-coms. That's why, if there's nothing better to do/watch, consider watching this.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Plot discussion:
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In the movie, Oliver (played by Kutcher) is an aspiring start-up businessman who wanted to start a successful internet company and that's one reason why he did not really want to start a serious relationship with Emily. Oliver actually seemed to be on the road to success when he secured financial backing from venture capitalists. I thought I know where this movie was going - he will be successful but realize that life is empty without love or something like that and will therefore approach Emily. But then, that did not happen and instead disaster happens and his business failed. This plot development in my opinion, was a somewhat refreshing twist and makes the motivation of Oliver to pursue Emily a little more compelling than what it could have been the other way around. To explain more, I would have to talk more about what happens earlier but my point is that this kind of plot development was very succesful and the movie is better because of that. One wonders why nobody has ever thought of this before (or maybe have, but I just don't remember / not aware).


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