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Catch and Release (2007)
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Reviews Counted:32
Fresh:9
Rotten:23
Average Rating:4.6/10
Consensus: A romantic dramedy with boring, stock characters and contrived situations.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for sexual content, language and some drug use
Runtime: 1 hr 55 mins
Genre: , Death, Romance, Theatrical Release, Weddings
Theatrical Release:2007-Winter
Box Office: $15,269,668
Synopsis: Screenwriter Susannah Grant makes her directorial debut in this tale of love, loss, and finding new love. Gray Wheeler's (Jennifer Garner) wedding day is not going as planned. Instead of walking... Screenwriter Susannah Grant makes her directorial debut in this tale of love, loss, and finding new love. Gray Wheeler's (Jennifer Garner) wedding day is not going as planned. Instead of walking down the aisle in her wedding gown, she is at the funeral of her fiancé, Grady, following his accidental death on a trip meant to be his bachelor party. To make ends meet, Gray puts her things in storage and moves in with Grady's roommates, levelheaded and attentive Dennis (Sam Jaeger) and quirky yet lovable Sam (Kevin Smith). With childhood friend Fritz (Timothy Olyphant) in from L.A. and crashing on the couch, it's a full house. Inhabiting Grady's old room, Gray soon learns that her fiancé had been keeping some big secrets from her and may not have been the man she thought he was. Perhaps more importantly, she discovers some surprising things about herself, and her ability to heal and love again. Each of the characters in this film has to find a way to survive the devastating loss of a man who held them all together. Garner effectively conveys Gray's heartbreak and confusion without going over the top. As Fritz, Olyphant pulls off the role of the mystery man who is always charming but often misunderstood. Jaeger is earnest and heartfelt as Grady's roommate and business partner. But Smith is the scene-stealer here, with deadpan delivery and great timing as a Celestial Seasonings employee spouting philosophical quotes from the herbal tea company's packaging. Juliette Lewis appears as a sexy, slightly flaky, Californian massage therapist who is also a skeleton in Grady's closet. [More]
Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Jennifer Garner, Juliette Lewis, Kevin Smith
Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Jennifer Garner, Juliette Lewis, Kevin Smith, Sonja Bennett, Yorgo Constantine, Sam Jaeger, Fiona Shaw
Director: Susannah Grant
Director: Susannah Grant
Producer: Jenno Topping
Composer: BT, Tommy Stinson
Studio: Sony Pictures Entertainment
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Reviews for Catch and Release
One of those movies where the small pleasures stack up high enough to dwarf the disappointments.
The film suffers from a style that settles for pleasant or touching at the cost of spontaneous or impassioned. Too bad, because Ms. Garner is a genuinely pleasing presence.
Were it not for [Kevin] Smith's mildly amusing antics, it might have been necessary to attach a warning to the movie about the dangers of watching it whilst operating heavy machinery.
Susannah Grant's movie is rough around the edges, but once you get used to the laconic pace, the plot grooves along nicely.
Screenwriter Susannah Grant makes her directing debut with a romance that wants to respect the mess of love and loss but winds up smoothing all its rough edges with a Hollywood pumice stone.
However diverting are Garner, Smith and the scenery, the ricochet-romance aspect of Grant's film is, frankly, icky.
Garner and [writer/director] Grant work hard to push the picture into unexplored territory, and the cringe-worthy moments are easy to overlook.
Every time [Kevin Smith] comes on screen, he perks things up a little. He makes the time pass faster, and the flaws recede. He turns what might be a forgettable movie into a halfway decent one.
The romantic comedy Catch and Release is refreshing for what it doesn't have. There is no whiny, spoiled golden girl and no baring of claws.
The chick comedy-drama Catch and Release may look bland, but it's not. It's worse. To rise to the level of blandness, it would need to have a few gallons of Tabasco dumped into it.
A film that a talented veteran of romantic comedy would have had trouble pulling off, let alone a screenwriter (Susannah Grant wrote Erin Brockovich) who has never directed a film before.
Neither a comedy nor a drama but existing in that comfortable space in between, Catch and Release, the feature-directing debut of screenwriter Susannah Grant, is an oddly appealing, if innocuous, movie of considerable charm.
The romantic dramedy Catch and Release is off the mark in so many respects one wonders if it would have been more humane to release this one directly into the DVD stream.
A noteworthy mess for the sheer mass of talent it squanders, Catch and Release is best not caught.
There are some interesting, if less than original, ideas stuck between all the comic banter and the unlikely romantic relationship you see coming a mile away, but the film never finds a way to marry the less-than-convincing melodrama with the melancholy.
A romantic comedy-drama with little comedy, no drama and less romance than your average YouTube video.
This fish-themed romance flops wildly all over the place, from heavy poignant moments to slapsticky comedy, with a healthy dose of soapy melodrama in between.
Latest News for Catch and Release
April 27, 2007:
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