So I just Netflixed A Lot Like Love, which was that romantic comedy with Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet. Remember the trailer? I have to say, the trailer is the reason I didn't see this movie sooner, which is unfortunate. I mean, I kind of love both Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet, I'm a sucker for a formulaic romantic comedy, and I'm always (unlike with music) looking for a new one to indulge. I waited so long to see A Lot Like Love because, frankly, I thought it looked pretty stupid. I mean, even more stupid than is normally acceptable. I have a pretty high threshold for stupid when it comes to my chick flicks. But the trailer, or maybe it was just pregnancy hormones talking at the time back in '05, seemed to highlight the more slapstick elements of the movie, such as Amanda Peet taunting Ashton with two straws stuck up her nose. Or Amanda Peet walking full-on into a glass door. Et cetera. Slapstick has its own place in my...heart? I do like slapstick, every now and then. But in a romantic comedy, not so much. A brief and well-timed moment such as the kid throwing the paper--and slinging himself off the bike as well--in While You Were Sleeping is golden. Or if the whole movie is deliberately and thoughtfully filled with slapstick moments, like Drop Dead Gorgeous, that's something different. That's smart. It's not meant to attract 10-year-old boys to the flick.Aside from the too-high stupid-to-engaging ratio, the A Lot Like Love trailer also did what I suspected: it told the whole freaking story. I mean, seriously, the trailer is the movie, in a very tiny nutshell. It goes through the entire thing, except for the kiss in the end. They kiss in the end! They get together! That's the only thing you're missing, which obviously--not a big shocker. But still. I realize it's a challenge to convey the basic bones of a movie in a tempting way, in order to "tease" the moviegoer into saying, I so want to see that, particularly when the movie covers a 7-year time span and a lot of character evolution. But to include everything up until the last five minutes? Retardo. I don't want to be told the movie is something it's not, but I also don't want to know everything that happened, either. What's the point?
In the end, A Lot Like Love was mindlessly enjoyable in the way a chick flick should be, and if it ever plays all day on TBS, I'm very sure that I will tune in. It was worth the rental. But I should have rented it months ago, and I would have, had it not been for the crappy ad campaign.
