Movie Review: Kate And Leopold

5/10

Now... a curious decision this was, to watch a romantic comedy wstarring well past her time Meg Ryan and a very stick up the backside Hugh Jackman.

I thought it was OK, though, a rare "high concept" R.C., in which Jackman's stuffy 19th century Duke (who, incidentally invented the lift... elevator) sees a strange man acting suspiciously and follows him, finding out the hard way that this man is a time traveller, albeit a somewhat haphazard one.

The two of them tumble through a split in the space/time continuum (very plausibly explained although in a Star Trek Pseudo-scientific way) and I found it quite a refreshing concept. They also introduce, very subtly, the effect of taking this man out of the past (all the elevators stop working - in the background) and the time traveller's sudden removal from the story precipitates a crisis, in that the time "hole" or whatever will close on Monday.

Unfortunately almost immediately the film falls back into the conventions of the romantic comedy and the man out of time falls very quickly into the everyday surroundings without too much culture shock - he's a clever guy thoguh, so this is a bit more forgivable than usual - he's prepared to admit the truth of his own eyes and accept his situation.

It's also a shame that Meg Ryan has squandered her career so badly - while the film "In The Cut" is fairly awful, it signalled that maybe there was a serious actress somewhere there, but nothing I have seen since has reinforced that impression. Often this says more about casting directors playing safe than it does about actors, but there it is.

The peripheral characters are two dimensional, the story is conventional to a hilarious degree - lets look at it:

1. Mismatched couple meet
2. They instantly dislike each other
3. One becomes intrigued
4. Then they persuade the other one to like them
5. A few minutes of bliss
6. Conflict arises and they fall out
7. They (or usually the one who broke it off) realises they were wrong to end it.
8. They chase the other one to try and renew the relationship
9. There is some kind of adversity making this difficult
10. They manage it and happily ever after

Try applying this formula to the next film you see in this genre... it's quite funny to see how the conventions are followed. The reasons for the slavishness to this formula is simple - it works - you can't wish the relationship would get back together as much in (10) without (5), for example.

I'll explain in terms of Kate and Leopold

1. The 19th century Duke meets Kate, who happens to be the time travellers ex girlfriend and a very clichéd power suit woman.
2. they dislike each other instantly
3. then the duke becomes intrigued
4. his constant chivalry overwhelms her dislike
5. They spend a day and night having a wonderful lovey time.
6. He gets hacked off with her job (marketing - lying to people essentially) and they fall out.She tells him effectively to sod off
7. She realises she was wrong
8. She tries to get him back
9. Problem is, he's already gone back since the time/space continuum would implode without him
10. She goes back too (this is presented as a twist, but is so obvious my head hurt NOT thinking about it) and they live happily ever after.

It's a strange thing that the time frame is always reaaaaaally cut down - this whole love affair (and love they call it) takes place over a week.

But you don't watch romantic comedies for the realism, and this is a fairly inoffensive example, so if you're facing a girly night in and this is the chosen film, don't feel alcohol is the only way through the evening.

A