THE ROMANTICS
Written & Directed by Galt Niederhoffer, based on her novel
Produced by Jennifer Todd, Suzanne Todd, Ron Stein, Niederhoffer, Daniel Hendler, Daniela Taplin Lundberg & Michael Benaroya
Released by Paramount Famous
USA. 95 min. Rated PG-13
With Katie Holmes, Josh Duhamel, Anna Paquin, Malin Akerman, Adam Brody, Dianna Agron, Jeremy Strong, Rebecca Lawrence, Candice Bergen & Elijah Wood
 

Spending 10 minutes flipping through a J. Crew catalogue is excessive. A 95-minute ad would be ludicrous. Tortuous. Insane. Perhaps I exaggerate. First-time director Galt Niederhoffer’s dramedy The Romantics isn’t very ludicrous, only slightly tortuous. I’m sure perfectly sane people will go and see it. And the wardrobe, most of which was provided by J. Crew (who helped market the movie in a very clever campaign), is very lovely in a preppy New England way. As are the cast, a veritable who’s-who of young stars and raised cheekbones. They all make excellent models on the New England-ish seaside set, and occasionally, when they remember to, they act.

Taking place in a 24-hour time period, the film follows Laura (Katie Holmes) as she attends the rehearsal dinner—as the maid of honor, no less—of college friends Lila (Anna Paquin) and Tom (Josh Duhamel). Lila was Laura’s roommate. Laura used to date Tom. Tom is unsure whether he wants to get married—at all. Add in alcohol, a lake, and a possible disappearance of the groom and it’s an episode from Dawson’s Creek: The (Almost) Grown-Up Years.

Holmes makes the necessary pouts to indicate emotional turmoil, while Duhamel is convincing as the prevaricating groom. Paquin surprisingly falls flat for most of the film until towards the end, when she flexes some dramatic muscle in her confrontations with Laura and Tom. The rest of the cast is largely whitewash, except for Candice Bergen as Lila’s crack-the-whip-but-with-class mother. To be fair, they don’t have much to work with. Having adapted the screenplay from her book of the same name, Niederhoffer seems to have worried more about the lighting and the look than the actual script. At one point, Laura says, “My friends got the nickname ‘The Romantics’ because of their incestuous dating history.” A decent enough line in a book, but in the movie it just sounds like overwrought prose.  

The Romantics is not the worst romantic fodder to come out this year, by far. The catalyst of a wedding can garner a sharp exploration of life and love a la Rachel Getting Married, or the bittersweet, as in Love Actually. Unfortunately for The Romantics, the most it can lay claim to is being pleasantly forgettable. But at least it’s pretty. Lisa Bernier
September 10, 2010