Imagine Me and You (R)
Scott:
Scott:Tonight I am reviewing Imagine You & Me
, a story about a woman who found the love of her life at her wedding, unfortunately, it wasn't the groom.
I would ask Mike what he thought, but he is currently quail hunting with Vice President Dick Cheney. Of course, I haven't heard from him in a while.
This movie stars Piper Perabo as the bride, Rachel. She has appeared in such great films as Coyote Ugly and Cheaper by the Dozen 1 & 2. As the movie starts we see her preparing for her wedding, with all of the normal nervousness you would expect. At this time we meet Luce, the wedding florist, played by Lena Headey.
Last time we talked about Headey was in The Brothers Grimm. In that movie she disappeared for periods of time. She was much better in this movie, but there was only so much she could do with what she was given.
During the ceremony there is brief eye contact between the two leading ladies and we know its love at first site. How do we know that? There is a very clear musical queue to tell us, kind of like the choral music at church.
At that point, you know the groom, Heck (Matthew Goode), is in trouble and it's only a matter of time before things start to happen. I enjoyed Goode. I've not seen anything by him before, and he was very good in this.
Some time after the wedding Rachel drops in to Luce's flower shop and they pick up where they left off at the wedding. Soon they are eating dinner at the newlywed's house where Rachel tries to set up Luce with Heck's best man. Best man Coop (Darren Boyd) is the proverbial 'walking ball of horniness'. Surprisingly to him, he doesn't get anywhere. Just before dinner Heck is told about Luce's sexual orientation. Rachel doesn't find out until later in a funny scene in a supermarket.
I don't want to give anything else away from this point on so I will just stop there with the movie description. The movie starts off really funny as the double entendres begins to fly. Most of the laughs in this film are brought about in the differences in slang between the Brits and us Americans. They talk different than we do, maybe a little more rough, and a bit more to the point. About halfway through the movie settles into a familiar pattern and slows down quite a bit. The movie is a really short 94 minutes; it even feels shorter than that.
One person I have to point out is Ben Miles who plays Heck's Boss Rob. He had a really small role in this film, but that's not why I bring him up. He was a regular in the British television show, Coupling, a great show if you have never seen it. In that he plays an idiot womanizer, and does a very good job of it.
Also, I should tell you that this movie is a romantic comedy. I won't explain the rules of romantic comedies, because I wouldn't want to ruin the fun for you. It is a standard ro-com though, with the only difference being the genders of the involved parties.
First time director and writer Ol Parker had his work cut out for him with this movie. I think he wanted to make a point with this movie and never was able to get that point across.
I wish I could say that this movie with lead lesbian characters is a great movie, but I can't. It is truly the same tired formulaic romantic comedy. This is not on par with Brokeback Mountain and while some people may really want it to be a great movie because of the sexual orientation of the characters, it just isn't. There isn't enough drama, enough heartache; it's too easy, too sweet, too gift-wrapped. The characters recover from their heartbreak within moments, like changing a shirt or pair of shoes. You can't feel for characters that don't experience hard times. Sometimes life's not fair; this movie doesn't show that.
For a romantic comedy I give this a 2, mostly because they tried to make the movie better by introducing a lesbian relationship into the mix. That alone doesn't make a good movie. Overall, I give it a 2.5. It made me laugh in the first half of the movie and that's always nice.
