A young man and woman catches eyes across a video store and immediately there seems to be a chemistry there and all just by chance. Or maybe he was there only because he had already seen it and was looking for a way to make his first move? Hey, maybe the whole reason he is hiring films at all is to make an impression on her and maybe he doesn't even watch them? Three aspiring writers site in a diner and bounce ideas around the lives of their characters before finding their story going in a weird direction.
This is both a nice film and a disappointing one and the two aspects are directly connected. The nice part comes early on because we start the film as a regular Hollywood romance, with nice footage, beautiful young people having "awkward easy connection" type love that doesn't happen too often in real life. This establishes the genre and then we move into another world where the story is now just ideas and our characters are the three writers behind the ideas (good or bad). This is clever and it offered potential that this would go somewhere interesting.
It does this again later in the film, where the ground rules are changed again for the viewer (although more importantly also changed for the characters). Oddly though, the film doesn't really go anywhere from here. We spend a few minutes treading water with the same basic ideas and then when the narrative calls for the film to step it or deliver, it doesn't and instead seems more about delivering a line that is a good "jobbing writer" line but really doesn't work in the context of the film.
It is nicely made and filmed, whether it is as a rom-com with all the gloss or a regular diner. The performances are OK and generally it looks good and sounds good, but it is just the material where it lets itself down because as it ramps up it just seems to plateau with no clear direction before it glides to a conclusion. A shame because it is a nice film in concept and general delivery, but the material doesn't make the most of the idea and it ultimately ends up feeling disappointing on that level.
This is both a nice film and a disappointing one and the two aspects are directly connected. The nice part comes early on because we start the film as a regular Hollywood romance, with nice footage, beautiful young people having "awkward easy connection" type love that doesn't happen too often in real life. This establishes the genre and then we move into another world where the story is now just ideas and our characters are the three writers behind the ideas (good or bad). This is clever and it offered potential that this would go somewhere interesting.
It does this again later in the film, where the ground rules are changed again for the viewer (although more importantly also changed for the characters). Oddly though, the film doesn't really go anywhere from here. We spend a few minutes treading water with the same basic ideas and then when the narrative calls for the film to step it or deliver, it doesn't and instead seems more about delivering a line that is a good "jobbing writer" line but really doesn't work in the context of the film.
It is nicely made and filmed, whether it is as a rom-com with all the gloss or a regular diner. The performances are OK and generally it looks good and sounds good, but it is just the material where it lets itself down because as it ramps up it just seems to plateau with no clear direction before it glides to a conclusion. A shame because it is a nice film in concept and general delivery, but the material doesn't make the most of the idea and it ultimately ends up feeling disappointing on that level.
