Catch and Release

last updated 8 January 2015

Catch and Release is 'œa pretty peculiar film,' said Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune. Screenwriter Susannah Grant's directorial debut is an odd hybrid of grief movie and chick flick'”and never seems to decide which it wants to be. Jennifer Garner plays Gray, a bland but likable woman whose fiancÃ©, Grady, is killed in a freak accident just before the wedding date. Guests gather for the wedding-turned-funeral, and Grady's best pals offer Gray support as she learns that Grady had more than a few dirty little secrets. Honest and serious scenes are weirdly interspersed with product placement and the slapstick stuff of romantic comedy, said Bob Strauss in the Los Angeles Daily News. A messy incident involving a milk shake and a blender, for instance, is followed closely by a suicide attempt. It's strange, too, that the grieving characters' lives 'œseem to have unnaturally strong connections to the Celestial Seasonings tea corporation.' Part of the problem may be that Grant's original, more ambitious vision was compromised by executive interests, said Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times. There seem to be remnants of a deeper, more interesting story here. But in the end, the movie is just too dependent on tired tropes. A spacey masseuse's preparation of inedible vegan treats, for example, 'œis a standard Hollywoodism that seems outdated by 30 years.'

Rating: PG-13