by Peter Morris in Los Angeles on March 4 2003
This is a film I wanted to like a lot more than I actually did. I went along to see it in the right frame of mind for what I thought would be a romantic comedy but ended up getting something that evidently started in that direction but never quite reached its destination.
ANGELINA JOLIE, who is always good to look at onscreen, sports a blonde 'do' as a go-getting TV reporter in Seattle hoping to make it to the Network. She has the seemingly perfect life: her dream job, engaged to a baseball star, they have a perfect apartment, toast of the town - a golden couple!
Then one day she's sent out to do a feature on "Jack the Prophet" (TONY SHALHOUB, a local homeless guy who predicts the weather and sports results) - she asks if she'll get her job at the Network and he tells her instead she's going to die.
The rest of the film consists of JOLIE reassessing her 'perfect' life including the love/hate relationship she has with an easygoing cameraman ED BURNS.
With a few relatively predictable twists and turns, i.e. family and fiance confrontations/heart to hearts/ schmaltzy day out with cameraman and his son etc, we arrive at an ending which I won't spell out entirely but you can probably guess even from this short description - and that probably tells you all you need to know.
To be fair there are a few laughs in the plot but not enough to warrant it being called a full on comedy. There's romance too - depending on your definition and your taste for the predictable. Jolie looks great as ever. And if you liked Ed Burns in any of his previous films, well, he does another great job of being ED BURNS (and no I'm not being bitchy, I'm merely saying that for me it wasn't enough to lift this film above the ordinary) TONY SHALHOUB is always good in my opinion check out '"The Man Who Wasn't There", "Galaxy Quest" "Big Night" "Men in Black I & II") but again not enough to save the day here.
UK Release: 28th March 2003
Celebrities Worldwide Rating: 4.5 out of 10
David Jensen Photography:
https://www.davidjensen.co.uk/
