Catch and Release (2006)

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

Director:

Susannah Grant

Writer:

Susannah Grant

Stars:

Jennifer Garner, Timothy Olyphant, Kevin Smith

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

After the sudden death of her fiancé, Gray Wheeler finds comfort in the company of his friends: lighthearted and comic Sam, hyper-responsible Dennis, and, oddly enough, his old childhood buddy Fritz, an irresponsible playboy whom she'd previously pegged as one of the least reliable people in the world. As secrets about her supposedly perfect fiancé emerge, Gray comes to see new sides of the man she thought she knew, and at the same time, finds herself drawn to the last man she ever expected to fall for.

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Plot Keywords:

f rated | reference to traci lords | reference to persephone the goddess | death of fiance | grieving over lost love | 

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Taglines:

Life is messy...love is messier.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Details

Official Sites:

Sony Pictures [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 January 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Catch & Release

Filming Locations:

Boulder, Colorado, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$7,658,898, 28 January 2007, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$15,269,668, 18 February 2007

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Relativity Media, Tall Trees Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min (cable)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Kevin Smith was cast as Sam after Susannah Grant saw him in his Q&A DVD An Evening with Kevin Smith (2002).

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Goofs

They use two models of green Subaru Legacy Outback as a single car. The first showing is a 1998 or 1999 with the hood scoop, but near the end, she is driving the same one throughout the show, along the PCH. But when she arrives at the house on the beach it is a 2000 or newer model, which is a different body style, and clearly no hood scoop.

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Quotes

Sam: So, were you the bitch or were you the butch?

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Connections

Referenced in Suburgatory: Catch and Release (2014)

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Soundtracks

The Winding Staircase
(2006)
Written and Performed by New Radiant Storm King
Courtesy of Darla Records
Under license from Coda Music

User Reviews

Botched up but released anyway

Film is a schizophrenic hodge-podge of elements from chick flick sentimentality and a frat beer drinking party sideshow. The attempt to mix the two is handled with little cohesion, and never seals the deal for either audience (and certainly falls short of appealing to both, which is what it seems to want).

We meet a grieving woman (Jennifer Garner) who was engaged, but her fiancé dies just before the wedding. That would seem to be an emotional story of healing and moving on, right? Wrong. At the funeral, we meet his idiot friends (Kevin Smith and two other jokers, all who turn in rotten performances). What one of them is doing at the funeral home is appalling; to put it bluntly, the guy is a jerk. OK, so it's supposed to be a sophomoric comedy? Wrong again.

Grit your teeth, there's still more clichéd characters coming. Enter the blonde bimbo, and her weird kid. A lot of the plot revolves around these two. She mumbles about yoga; the kid just stands around robotically throwing CD's on the floor. Real cute; I wanted to throw a ten ton crate of CD's on his head. Anyway, these two have a secret that drives the plot along. Presence of kid = suspicion. If you catch my drift.

People do stuff that doesn't add up. There's a romance that has as much chemistry as two patches of dead seaweed. The attraction makes no sense, either, in light of earlier events in the story. Most characters suddenly change in odd ways, rather than evolve logically. Random sight gags evoke no laughs. The kid continues to be obnoxious.

Nobody in the cast except for Garner makes any effort; they just don't seem to care. Even Ben-Jen's work here is not quite up to par, in light of her proved potential in other roles.

The ending is ridiculous (and about as likely as the odds of winning a 50 million dollar lottery). It's like somebody tagged it on, because they didn't know how to close out the thing. The movie never does figure out which genre(s) it wants to be, either.