Radio Lady Reviews: "Catch and Release" (Opens Friday, 1/26/07)

[Radio_Lady]

My husband and I went to a preview of “Catch and Release” this week. We were pleasantly surprised…not that I had a specific reason to think I wouldn’t like it. You see, it's now after January 1. The major studios all released their good stuff before December 31, so those flicks would qualify for the Academy Awards and all the other 2006 awards ceremonies. For a reviewer, those last couple of weeks in December are a little like catapulting yourself pell-mell through a bunch of drive-in theaters (for those of you who remember them!). You zoom through from screen to screen and, when you are going at full speed through the last of last year’s offerings, you can’t stop. Then, you go flying right off a cliff and down, down, down to the dregs of the new year’s movies. I hope you get my drift.

So, that’s it. We shouldn’t expect much early in the year, and definitely not in January. On the other hand, if you’ve made a decent little movie -- not Academy Award material, but not bad -- those low January expectations might just catch some good audience acceptance. Sort of like being Caught but not needing Release…from the experience. So “Catch and Release” (which is a fishing term) deserves a real review. I’ll try to be good. Here goes.

First, I like Jennifer Garner. She’s a decent actress and, even when playing "plain and with little or no make up", she sparkles when she smiles and lets those dimples go to work. And that’s how we find her as the film opens. Sad, plain, courageously without makeup, to let us know how terrible it is to be at the funeral of your dear unexpectedly departed fiancé. She plays Gray Wheeler struggling through the trials of that occasion. It is predictable that, as they say, time will heal all, but it is in the way the healing take place that makes the story captivating. Garner’s performance and the intelligent script strike just the right balance to favor us with a very believable character.

The script also offers quite a few surprises and challenges for our heroine who is surrounded by her and the dead fiancé’s cadre of loyal family and friends. Timothy Olyphant delivers nicely as the loose ladies man Fritz. Sam Jaeger plays quieter and straighter Dennis. Burly Kevin Smith is a dependably comic Sam. Add in capable Juliette Lewis as Maureen, a surprise "other" woman of the still dead fiancé, and things really get going.

The “Catch and Release” characters are good and the script is great fun. It broke my January cliff fall and now I think I can handle the rest of the plunge into 2007. I rate “Catch and Release” a strong B+ on Ellen's Entertainment Report Card.

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, language and some drug use.
Genres: Comedy, Drama and Romance
Release Date: January 26th, 2007 (Wide)
Distributors: Sony Pictures Releasing
Studios: Columbia Pictures
Filming Locations: Vancouver, Canada and exteriors in Colorado
Produced in: United States

[wildhorses]

1. thanks radio lady--

she is a cutie with those dimples and, her husband ain't bad either:hi:

[Radio_Lady]

2. Anybody catch this flick when it opened?

[Radio_Lady]

3. Have you seen "Epic Movie"? It was the top of the list last week, and not screened for reviewers!