Catch And Release

Bottom Line: Screenwriter Susannah Grant makes directing debut with rambling but good-natured rom-com.

Sure it’s better to have loved and lost than not at all, but what about loving, losing, then discovering your now-dead groom-to-be wasn’t at all who you thought he was?

That’s still not as bad as the not-at-all option, it turns out, so long as that deceased fiance left you with some true-blue pals to cushion the fall. So says “Catch and Release,” a likable romantic comedy that delivers enough laughs and star appeal to fare reasonably well in the date-movie department, even if it doesn’t entirely live up to its ambitions.

Jennifer Garner plays would-be bride Gray, whose caterers plan for a wedding but wind up feeding a collection of mourners — including two, her late fiance Grady’s housemates, who are close enough to be her brothers, and one, a shallow commercials director just in from L.A. (Timothy Olyphant), who never quite fit into this little clan but has decided to stick around a while nevertheless.

In tidying up Grady’s affairs, Gray makes some startling discoveries: He was rich and was sending someone $3,000 a month. That someone is an unmarried woman (Juliette Lewis) with a young son.

Some hurtful words and one halfhearted suicide attempt later, these developments prove a bit less disruptive than viewers might expect. The story takes place in sunny Boulder, Colo., where, one character notes, people are unnaturally happy. Indeed a strong undercurrent of peace, love and understanding runs through the film: Characters introduced as louts or floozies are soon shown to be sympathetic human beings. Even their natural enemies come to see the good in them.

In part, that appears to reflect the big-heartedness of screenwriter Susannah Grant (champion of underestimated women in “Erin Brockovich” and “In Her Shoes”), who is making her feature-directing debut. She’s sympathetic here to characters that in another film might be two-dimensional punching bags; her warmth and her eagerness to make something richer than a typical romantic comedy go a long way.

But those revelations of characters’ hidden depths also can be abrupt, particularly in the case of Olyphant’s womanizer, whose evolution into a decent guy seems to happen off camera. Grant has acknowledged that her cut of the film started at two hours and 57 minutes. While one doesn’t long for that extra hour’s reinstatement — this sweet, small story isn’t meant to be an epic, and already feels a bit long — these cuts would explain a thing or two.

If not all its narrative and emotional strands work perfectly, though, the movie has its charms. Kevin Smith, as Grady’s housemate Sam, proves he’s no one-note Silent Bob. Although wearing a tie-dyed shirt may be the biggest challenge he faces here, he fills his comic-relief duties easily and has time left over to show a little tenderness. While Smith gets most of the laughs, Garner does turn a dinner-table outburst into a comic highlight.

Disc 1 (Toronto)

In the “Special Features” menu, highlight ‘Main Menu’ and press Left to reveal a Maple Leaf. Press Enter to see a clip of Mewes and Kevin talking about Jason having to hit on Jen in Degrassi.

Disc 2 (London)

In the “Trailers” menu, highlight ‘Special Features’ and press Up to reveal a crown on Kevin’s head. Press Enter to see a clip on the Secret Stash West opening.

Pat Mastroianni and Stefan Brogren came to Humber College for a Q and A, which I was covering for the Humber Et Cetera. During the show, they spoke about how Kevin was a big fan of the show .

Pat also told a story about how many years ago, he was at a convention in Vancouver as a guest representing Degrassi and Kevin pre-Clerks, came to ask him for his autograph. Kevin, of course, was there in school, and it’s something that Mastroianni never forgot.

They then went on to talk about other things, but luckily I was able to get a question in at the Press Q and A, which was basically, “What’s happening with the movie?”

Essentially, they explained that as of now, it’s been shelved. They went through something like 8 drafts of the script and the funding was there, but things just couldn’t come together. The movie was going to be in between seasons, like the X-files did, picking up where that season would leave off. Because the movie’s not happening, the storyline that would have been used is going to be incorporated into a few episodes from this season although they didn’t mention which ones.

Brogren estimates that the show will only run for about another year becuase the kids are going to be going to college and they want to end it before they jump the shark. However, when the show ends, that will again provide a good opportunity for a movie to be made, so it will be looked at again. When and if it happens, Kevin IS still on board.

Truly Trivial

This actor played Batman in the short film Robin’s Big Date. (answer)

Naturally (or bizarrely, as some of my critics would point out), it’s in the School of Cinema and Television – a field I know a thing or two about (as I’ve watched many movies and TV shows). So, for the last month, I’ve been spearheading a class called “Sucks Less, with Kevin Smith”, in which we produce a weekly TV show entitled, ironically, “Sucks Less, with Kevin Smith”. It starts airing this Thursday on MtvU (the college-campus only arm of the Viacom-owned Music Television empire), as well as on MtvU.com and, in an uncharacteristic-for-me nod to what’s being called “new media”, also on the Amp’d Mobile Phone. This means we’re producing Episodes, Webisodes, and Mobisodes – which, while sounding ambitious as fuck, simply means we’re producing one show that airs on three different platforms. Eat your heart out, Dick Wolf.

…

If you dig the show, I can take very little credit: it was, from first to last, the students’ production (consequently, if you hate the show, I get to dodge that bullet as well).

As for being a teacher… well, that’s something I’ll be able to address more thoroughly once we’re done with the course (second week of December). But thus far? I’m digging it (though not nearly as much as I’m digging the cafeteria).

Here, you can take a peep at one of the “bumpers” that’ll be running on MtvU this week, once “Sucks Less” has gone into regular rotation.

And here, check out the “Sucks Less Success Story” – a bumper that Ben (one of the students) shot with Bodi and Dagmar (two of his classmates).

Kirby had never eaten toes before.
– Kevin Smith

The Weinstein Company is the first studio to proactively offer to embed a classic truth(R) campaign ad in one of its DVD releases, beginning with one of its most popular – Clerks II, scheduled for a Dec. 5 release – and we applaud them for it. Our hope is that this bold move sets a trend for future Weinstein Company DVD releases and with other key decision makers in Hollywood. It is a simple way to prevent thousands of youth from smoking, and can ultimately reduce the impact of tobacco addiction and premature death that accompany it.

Question: Are you going to keep acting?

JLA: No, I just don’t,…the five years that we were trying to get the money, I kept thinking at any moment we were going to get the money, and I was passing on jobs, and then, it got to where I needed money, so I had to do films that I wasn’t necessarily right for the role. And, it sort of put a bad taste in my mouth with acting. So, I’m going to let that go away.

But, if Kevin Smith called and said, Hey, Joey, I would in a heartbeat. Like for THE BREAK-UP when Vince [Vaughn] called and said, Will you come do this? That’s really fun for me. But I only want to do it, even if it’s a small role, if it’s really a director I want to work with or something that I feel I’ll grow as an actor. Because, like I said, there are so few directors that really direct. I would love to work with a great director that really works with his actors and that sort of thing.

Question: Did Kevin Smith have any words of advice to give you before filming?

JLA: I asked him if he wanted to read the script, and he said, No, because we have such different styles. [Laughs.] “I don’t think I should give you notes.”