Catch and Release (2006/II)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Susannah Grant

Writer (WGA):

Susannah Grant (written by)

Release Date:

26 January 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Life is messy...love is messier.

Plot:

A woman struggles to accept the death of her fiancé and the secrets he kept from her as she rebuilds her life.

Plot Keywords:

Secret | Friend | Fiancee | Sex In Shower | Unrequited Love

Cast

Jennifer Garner	...	Gray
Timothy Olyphant	...	Fritz
Sam Jaeger	...	Dennis
Kevin Smith	...	Sam
Juliette Lewis	...	Maureen
Joshua Friesen	...	Mattie
Fiona Shaw	...	Mrs. Douglas
Tina Lifford	...	Eve
Georgia Craig	...	Persephone
Christopher Redman	...	Flower Delivery Guy
Joyce Krenz	...	Housekeeper
Sonja Bennett	...	Caterer
Yorgo Constantine	...	Co-Worker
Dan Parker	...	Deadhead Singer
Nancy Hower	...	Deadhead Singer

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, language and some drug use.

Runtime:

USA:124 min | USA:124 min | Argentina:124 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Ireland:12A | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | USA:PG-13 (certificate #41473) | Malaysia:U | Singapore:PG | Argentina:Atp | Australia:M | Netherlands:AL | South Korea:15 | Germany:o.Al.

Filming Locations:

Boulder, Colorado, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Jason Lee was offered the part of Sam but turned it down to provide the voice of Syndrome in The Incredibles (2004). The role was subsequently offered to Kevin Smith.

Goofs:

Continuity: The scene where Gray went back to her storage place to look for a picture of Grady. Her left hand doesn't have the permanent marker drawing on it that Fritz just drew hours before.

Quotes:

Gray: My girlfriends and I used to have a rule that we wouldn't sleep with a guy until we knew his mother's maiden name.

Movie Connections:

References Clerks. (1994)

Soundtrack:

Razor

A Lame Effort, Partially Saved by Juliette Lewis

Is there a production company somewhere that specializes in churning out the kind of banal, unoffensive films that are frequently used as in-flight movies, and if so, is it responsible for this film?

A flight from London to Chicago happens to be where I saw this movie, and even with absolutely nothing else to do or distract me, I had trouble staying with it. "Catch and Release" isn't bad. It's too safe to be bad. Rather, it's painfully uninspired. It's the kind of movie you simply can't imagine anyone getting up the energy to make. Was there really a screen writer out there who thought this story needed desperately to be told, and actually went to the trouble to tell it? Was there really a director who decided he had to bring this story to the screen, a cinematographer who put effort into planning shots? Did any of the actors read this script and think it was a project they simply had to be involved with? Apparently, because we have the movie itself as proof that at least someone thought it was worth brining to audiences. And there are decent things about it, notably Juliette Lewis, who gives a delightful performance as a new-age hippie struggling with motherhood, who makes you wish the movie was about her every time she appears on screen. Jennifer Garner, who the movie is supposed to be about, fades into the background, because neither she as an actress nor the character as written is capable of drawing our attention to herself. The script is too timid to allow any dramatic conflict to last more than a couple of scenes, so loose ends are neatly tied up with assembly-line efficiency.

This is film-making at its most disposable.

Grade: C