Dir. Robert Luketic ,US, 2009, 96 mins
Cast: Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler
Review by Carol Allen
This rom com with touches of gross out is a little bit different from the norm and works pretty well due to a witty script and good performances from the leads.
Heigl plays Abby, producer of the morning talk show on a small tv station in Sacramento, who takes herself rather seriously ("I once had Archbishop Tutu on this show"). She is therefore horrified when, in order to boost the flagging ratings, her boss brings in controversial correspondent Mike (Butler), whose sexist, "ugly truth" advice to women viewers on how men tick and what they want (push up bras and lots of sex) goes right against Abby's grain. A total failure on the dating scene, she has a shopping list of what she wants from Mr Right, and when the apparently perfect New Man prospect, in the form of vet (Colin) Eric Winter, moves in next door to her, she accepts Mike's bet that his tuition will enable her to nail her man.
We know of course that Abby and Mike are going to fall for each other but the television world setting and the reasonably original and well drawn characters make it an interesting journey. Heigl is not only very pretty and likeable but a good actress and Butler, while strangely not as drop dead handsome in this as he's appeared in some other films, still makes the male chauvinist hero, who is inevitably hiding his fears of showing his sensitive side, an attractive proposition. Their comedy chemistry and timing together is very effective.
There are moments when things fall a bit flat, as in a scene in a restaurant, where Abby is wearing a pair of orgasmic vibrating knickers given to her by Mike and a young boy at the next table is playing with the controls. It should have been a classic on a par with the "I'll have what she's having" one in "When Harry Met Sally" but it doesn't quite cut the comedy mustard or have a good enough punch line. And the final resolution of Abby and Mike's relationship is predictably somewhat on the soppy side. Overall though the film is cheeky, sexy and frank without being coarse and has some fun side swipes at down market television with its frantic search for ratings and the world of the "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" best selling advice industry. Cheryl Hines and John Michael Higgins have some good moments as Sacramento's answer to Richard and Judy, as does Winter as the supposedly perfect Colin, who proves to be just like any other bloke when push comes to shove, as it were.
The underlying philosophy, that any single woman is by definition unhappy, sexually frustrated and really craving a dominant man, is of course mind boggling anathema to any self respecting feminist. I suspect though that the script, written by three women, may have some ugly truth in it, perhaps based on bitter experience.
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