LOVE AND OTHER DISASTERS

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An American intern at U.K. Vogue helps her friends find love.




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MOVIE INFO

A hyperactive and high-fashion American transplant living in London and working for Vogue magazine does her best to enhance the lives of those around her while remaining blissfully unaware of the man who longs to profess his true love to her in an ultra-modern romantic comedy produced by Luc Besson and David Fincher and directed by Alek Keshishian. Emily Jackson (Brittany Murphy) lives a charmed life. Always on the go in her Mini Cooper and able to talk until the sun comes up and then some, her fast-paced lifestyle belies a sensitive soul who takes great joy in playing matchmaker for her many friends. It's Emily's gay roommate and constant companion, Peter (Matthew Rhys), who usually becomes the subject of the quirky Cupid's frequent pairings, and when handsome new photographer's assistant Paolo (Santiago Cabrera) arrives at the Vogue offices, Emily makes it her mission to bring the two men together. Unfortunately for the contemporary Holly Golightly, Emily is so busy arranging a love connection between Peter and Paolo that she remains completely blind to the obvious torch carried for her by the one suitor who longs to provide her the with the loving companionship that she so cheerfully arranges for others.

CollageMovie Reviews

Romantic comedy is one of my least favorite genres in all of film.  I know, I’m a girl and I should be gushy about this crap, but quite frankly I’ve grown tired of the formulaic system.  Boy meets girl.  Boy and girl must jump over a hurdle of some sort to discover they actually do love each other.  Boy and girl live happily ever after.  Don’t get me wrong, there are some fantastic romantic comedies that I actually do love and adore.  But trust me, they are few and far between. Love And Other Disasters will never be one of the few that I don’t mind watching over and over again, and to be quite frank, I hope it stays far, far away.

The story is your basic rom-com premise so I won’t waste time discussing it here.  There was nothing original or different so you’ve probably seen this story before, but in a better film with better actors.  Brittany Murphy, bless her heart, tried so hard to be a good female lead in romantic comedies when she was alive.  But ultimately she always failed because she’s just too weird and quirky (and I mean that as a compliment – honest).  She did a fine job inClueless, Girl, Interrupted, and Riding In Cars With Boys, but she was not the lead in any of those films.  She was better suited for the role as the “best friend” or the “strange girl” and unfortunately Love and Other Disasters doesn’t compliment the ‘sidekick’ persona. 

But it wasn’t just her character; in all honestly her performance in this film is terrible as she struggles to manage her faux British accent.  Her character was supposedly born in England but raised in the States; a story element that I believe was added into the script because poor Ms. Murphy kept switching between accents throughout the entire film.  No one around her did a great job either; otherwise, I would have seen a light at the end of the tunnel while watching this mess.  The best friend was a blubbering fool and all of the male characters were clichéd beyond belief.  I was so annoyed by Murphy’s attempts to be cute and adorable that I was literally gritting my teeth for most of the movie and my jaw is still sore today!

I’m pretty sure this was a straight-to-DVD release because it was filmed in 2006 and I don’t recall ever hearing anything about it before watching this Blu-Ray.  I’m thanking my lucky stars I haven’t come across it on TV while channel surfing late at night, but then again I’m not quite sure it is even good enough for that distinction.  Needless to say, the title fits the bill: Love And Other Disasters is nothing more than a line of huge disasters.

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