I only saw this movie because it has my favorite actor, Michael Shanks, in it. I was surprised to find that the film itself was really superb. the story kept my attention, and the characters were well developed and carried through. coupled with a great script and great acting, the movie came along great. I suggest seeing it if you can.so yes, it is a tad cheesy, but i don't think you'll really mind all that much.This movie made me love Michael Shanks even more, and I added a few new actors and actresses to my list of favorite actors.It's hard to find in America, but feel free to try. it's worth it.

I saw this movie at the Maui Film Festival, not expecting much. To my surprise, it was caustically hilarious, so biting and witty that I found myself laughing out loud over and over and marveling at the talent on display. People who don't like it may not get that kind of humor. It's Woody Allen with a sharper edge, with a more modern, hip sensibility. I see lots of movies, and rarely have I liked a comedy as much as this one. The acting is good, the writing crisp and the pace is fast. I'd recommend it highly.

Here's a case of a director getting her hands on some promising material and not delivering. I sat in the theatre thinking this story of a writer so anxious to protect her public image she end up almost ruining her personal life might be halfway decent if better choices had been made. But it seemed as if the director didn't really understand the story she was telling. The story's protagonist, Jackie is played by Wendy Crewson as a middle aged Jackie Collins-style writer who falls for a twenty year old from the creative writing class she teaches. Patrick (Joe Cobdon) seems to be as in to Jackie as she is to him and after some unconvincing flirting between the two of them they end up in bed in a sequence cut together like an eighties teen-film style montage.What puzzled me was that much of the dialogue and what happens suggested this was meant to be more along the lines of a Margaret Atwood-type character than Jackie Collins. Had Crewson played it more like an intellectual instead of a hammy romance novelist we might have better understood the stake's of going public with her affair. We also might bett er have understood Patrick's attraction to Jackie. After all we're meant to think this woman's writing got this confused kid through some awkward adolescent periods.It's probably not fair to ask Crewson to shoulder the blame. One assumes director Anne Wheeler would have reigned her in if she didn't agree with Crewson's characterization. But she didn't even have the sense to control her own hammy impulses. There were several pointless fast motion scenes, at least two excruciating Lilith Fair scored mope montages and it seemed whenever she wasn't sure how to block a scene she'd plop the characters in a bubblebath or a hottub.My main reason for attending this film was because I had read the screenwriter's funny and great novel, Then Again. This story doesn't appear to be at that level but it's well structured and there are some good lines and moments that might have been funny had the director had some sense of timing and the lead hadn't shouted all her lines.Joe Cobdon is sweet and likable as Patrick but Wheeler has him juggle at least three times. Because that's what young people do, right? Juggle.There are some okay scenes between Crewson and Peter Coyote and the film is generally better in the second half when it's a little more serious in tone. Both Wheller and Crewson seem more comfortable in that milieu. Perhaps they should stick to it in the future.

I REALLY wanted to like this movie. Really. I was invited to attend the Vancouver premier, and in that love-in supportive environment, with the director and producer present and applauded, I was SO ready for it to be good, but it wasn't - it was terrible. The plot was all over the map, the dialogue was unbelievably thin and rushed, and the character development was non-existent. The heart of the story essentially hinged on the chemistry between Wendy Crewson and Joe Cobden (and to a lesser extent between Crewson and Peter Coyote) which never came close to materializing. For most of the movie, they appeared to be reading their lines to each other in various clever locations and camera shots. Basically, I never cared about these characters because of a thin plot and poor writing, and I never bought what was supposed to be an overwhelming love between the two main characters. Some of the writing was very funny and clever (Geritol, Sanka...) and a good portion of the (locally shot) cinematography was brilliant, but in a love story, you have to buy into the love to enjoy the story- it just wasn't there.