Our Rating: 2.00
Having set the date-movie gold standard with “When Harry Met Sally,” director Rob Reiner bankrupts himself with this threadbare, lazily plotted romance — the kind that has you mouthing its gooey dialogue two seconds before it tumbles from the actors’ cheese-chapped lips. A deadline-stressed author (Luke Wilson) forms a close personal relationship with the semi-kooky stenographer (Kate Hudson) who’s helping him complete his latest masterpiece (read: the worst, most formless romance novel in history). Naturally, the product of their “collaboration” is dramatized as a parallel narrative, making for two stories that aren’t remotely clever, or even interesting. We don’t expect much more from Wilson, but Hudson … well, she just can’t catch a break these days, can she?
This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2003.