My wife and I don't make a big deal about Valentine's Day, because it's only five days before her birthday, and we're usually trying to save our special activity for then.
However, we do like to honor it in minor ways. You know -- wearing red, eating a nice dinner (at home these days, since we have a baby), and watching a romantic-themed movie.
But as usual, we forgot to line up our Netflix queue so as to get just the right movie delivered to our house in time for the big day. And while Netflix streaming has plenty of options, they are not necessarily good ones. In fact, I went through the "romance" section, all 13 pages of it, and found only a handful of instant viewing options I thought were worth the risk. There were a lot of titles I'd never heard of -- probably for good reason -- and a lot more titles that somehow slipped into the romance category because the two main characters have a romantic subplot. Big deal -- almost every movie you see involves a love interest for at least one of the characters.
So I made a trip to the library on Saturday to pick up the three most promising titles. I skipped such marginal choices as Ever After, Leap Year and Love Happens, and came away with Say Anything ..., Love Story and Kate & Leopold.
For some reason, I thought my wife hadn't seen Say Anything ... She has, but she saw it for the first time within the last decade, and declared it a little bit dated. (I haven't seen it in 15 years -- she might be right.) And she'd also seen Love Story recently, which I've never seen.
So ... Kate & Leopold?
It has two thumbs up from Ebert and Roeper on the box. I always thought it seemed potentially cute, but probably not more than that. Potentially cute might be good enough for Valentine's Day ... or it might not. One factor in its favor is that it stars Hugh Jackman. Like my wife, Jackman is Australian. Perhaps there's some inherent interest there.
So I ask you, dear reader ... is Kate & Leopold any good?
At least, good enough for two people who celebrate Valentine's Day in a pretty casual way?
7 comments:
Jackman and Ryan are surprisingly charming, as well as the story, but as always it falls under the terrible romantic comedy cliches.
I LOVE Kate & Leopold, have watched it at least three times. Jackman is stunning as the 1800s gentleman, and it's so funny when everyone thinks he's just an actor staying character rather than the hunky time-traveller that he actually is. It's my favorite role of his ever. Meg is just OK in this one, her whiny character gets annoying, but Leopold eventually softens her up. Kate's brother, who just happens to "discover" just how to go back in time is a stitch. The plot is implausible but worked for me. Hard for me to say if the guys would like this rom-com, but you could certainly do much worse.
Thanks for the feedback! We have decided to watch it ... even though we are both tired and we just realized it is a very un-romantic-comedy length of 118 minutes. I'll let you know what we thought!
So glad you decided to watch, it makes me giggle just thinking about K&L. Yes, please, let me know what you think after seeing it. Vancetastic, I also left another comment on your Oct 18 post about AMONI... just in case you haven't seen it yet ;-)
Sorry, didn't mean to remain anonymous is the previous comment, it was me, good 'ol PrairiGirl.
PG,
Yes indeed I got your comment on the other post -- have been meaning to respond, but you know how it goes! I will get on that soon!
I would give Kate & Leopold a pretty marginal thumbs up. It's pretty much as you say -- Jackman is good, Ryan is not so good. In fact, having not seen a more recent Meg Ryan film in quite some time, I was pretty amazed at how she had lost almost all of her charm. How did this happen? Maybe she wishes she'd never broken up with Dennis Quaid? Who knows. In any case, it was definitely too long, but it had its cute moments. It's worth watching for Jackman alone.
Glad K&L wasn't a complete washout for you, and you are 100% correct that this is Jackman's film, through and through. He's the reason it's high on my list. What was your wife's verdict? ;-)
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