Down to You (2000)

Director:

Kris Isacsson

Writer:

Kris Isacsson (written by)

Release Date:

21 January 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Romance | Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

A new comedy about giving first love a second chance.

Plot:

A young man wins and loses the first serious love of his life.

Plot Keywords:

Love | New York City | College | Shampoo | Chef

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Freddie Prinze Jr.	...	Al Connelly
Julia Stiles	...	Imogen
Selma Blair	...	Cyrus
Shawn Hatosy	...	Eddie Hicks
Zak Orth	...	Monk Jablonski
Ashton Kutcher	...	Jim Morrison
Rosario Dawson	...	Lana
Henry Winkler	...	Chef Ray
Lucie Arnaz	...	Judy Connelly
Lauren German	...	Lovestruck Woman
Zay Harding	...	Lovestruck Man
Amanda Barfield	...	Faith Keenan
Chloe Hunter	...	Megan Brodski
Granger Green	...	Haley Heller
Jed Rhein	...	Gabe Stiano

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material, sexual content, language, drug and alcohol use.

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #37185) | Iceland:L | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | France:U | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Netherlands:AL | Norway:A | Singapore:PG | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Open City Films

Quotes:

Imogen: [screaming at Al] You're an old man, and I hate that! And I hate you!

Movie Connections:

References Annie Hall (1977)

Soundtrack:

New Deli

Not awful – just unremarkable and mediocre

Al and Imogen have both finished college and now live separately despite seeing each other throughout their college years. However it is clear that both have some degree of unresolved feelings for each other. In to-camera interviews they discuss their relationship and trace it's path from the first time they met in Imogen's freshman year.

It is a device that I have grown accustom to because I have seen it done well quite often, but the direct-to-camera style is clearly difficult to do. First of all you need strong or likeable characters as the style is basically requiring some degree of interest of empathy from the first second. Without this it is pretty weak. This film stumbles at this point because even halfway through the film, I was still struggling to care less about the characters. Past this problem the plot is not the strongest – it has been done before regardless of superficial changes. It has little genuine humour and mostly is just the cinematic version of puppy love. When the problems come they are so poorly handled by the script that they fail to convince.

Sadly the blame must be shared between script and actors for most of this. The script fails to create characters that convince. The dialogue rarely rings true and sounds like a weak teen drama at worst. However this doesn't totally excuse the actors as they don't bring much to the roles. Prinze Jr is so wishy-washy and lifeless that he is not someone I ever got behind as real. He is too idealistic and, as a result, any scenes where he has to show hurt or anger, are unbelievable. Stiles is OK but suffers from a poor script. The support cast are basically monkeys who are simply comedy characters. I know that sounds cruel but none have any effort put into them – the porn star (no type of porn I've ever seen), the geek etc. Henry Winkler gets the odd smile but is just a famous face to add colour. Selma Blair is the least convincing porn actress I've ever seen but the Biggest waste to me was Rosario Dawson, not only gorgeous but a real talent given the chance, her character was so pointless that I wondered why they even bothered creating it.

It's not an awful film – it is simply mediocre and unremarkable to the point of monotony. Every part of it feels like you've seen it better somewhere else. The script is lazy – things are poorly thought out and the characters are thin and poorly developed. None of the cast really put their heart into it and the end result is a film that doesn't really do anything but still seems to take forever to finish!

Although it will be remembered for things like Trainspotting and My Beautiful Laundrette, FilmFour folded partly because it produced things like this that were without spark, wit or invention.