With my expectations set at a minimum for what I thought was going to be a mediocre romantic comedy featuring a prominent face on the rom-com scene and the guy with smoking hot looks but who's never been given credit for his acting abilities, I was definitely surprised with my reaction to it, but not in the way that I had hoped. Awkwardness is taken to a whole new level, and so is the absurdity of the plot and the overall thought process behind character development. Let's just say this film is a killer, but an amateur one with no real ambitions.
After recently breaking up with her boyfriend, Jen Kornfeldt (Katherine Heigl) has reluctantly decided to go on a vacation with her parents to the town of Nice, France. Trying to forget her break-up, Jen is keeping her hopes up about finding a new man for herself in the midst of traveling with her somewhat embarrassing parents. Coincidentally, she meets Spencer Aimes; an undercover assassin for the CIA who was sent to Nice on a mission. Unaware of Spencer's true profession, Jen falls head over heels in love with Spencer and they continue their romance back in the States. Before going back, Spencer meets with his boss and tells him of his retirement from the agency without any hesitation, despite his boss's assertions that there's no way out. With an opportunity to have a normal life and the woman of his dreams on the line, Spencer doesn't want to miss it and goes ahead with his original decision for retirement. Back in the States, Spencer asks Jen's father (Tom Selleck) for her hand in marriage and everything goes according to plan. Three years later, Spencer has assumed a job for a construction company and lives the perfect life with Jen in a decent house residing in a friendly community. Friends with practically all their neighbors and having a solid, loving relationship, the couple wonders if there's something more which would be a good addition to their household. Struggling to hold on to each other with their plans and feelings getting muddled, Spencer receives a message from his old boss to meet him once again. Uneasy about the situation, Spencer doesn't reveal this development of events to Jen and she starts to think that he's been acting a little vague lately. After trying to reignite their fire at Spencer's birthday party, Jen leaves the house for a meeting only to come back and witness a fight between Spencer and one of their good neighbors who also works for Spencer. Agitated and unable to believe her eyes what she has just seen and experienced after the attacker is finally subdued, Jen wants answers. Spencer explains that if he reveals his previous profession to her, she will be in clear danger and he's not willing to take that risk but Jen finally figures it out after some clues and comments from Spencer. Shocked and unable to trust Spencer any longer they find that Jen is pregnant, but is she willing to continue sharing a life with a man who has lied to her all these years and who could be a threat to her and her baby? After finding that many of the other neighbors, colleagues and friends are out to get Spencer, the couple decide to reunite and save each other from their somewhat imminent death in order to salvage the family they will be a part of in the future. The question is, who is behind all this deception and what is their purpose in the disposition of Spencer?
From the beginning of the film you'd think that the premise of Ashton Kutcher playing an assassin will be a smooth transition for him into a role which is a tad more demanding and in need of his acting abilities, and it's true, the film starts out with them vacationing in France and the stage is set for him to strut his moves with some promising character development in store for the couple. But no doubt nearly every conversation they have is full of awkwardness and you're wondering if there's ever a chance of seeing an intelligent conversation between these two. The chemistry also starts to drift away from them and all we see are shots of them enjoying each other's company in the supposedly beautiful town of Nice before they cut to their return to the States and the eerily immaculate neighborhood they base their lives in.
You'd think that maybe the plot and screenplay would take them on a wild goose chase to other exotic cities in Europe or Asia for that matter, but the rest of the film takes place in the neighborhood this couple decides to call home. The perfect word to describe the rest of the movie is "suffocating"; with no further development in trying to amaze the audience or bringing out some worthy comedic material, the film just drags on until they eventually wipe out all their enemies. At least if you're committed or limited to keeping the story confined to one location, try compensating for it by including cutting edge dialogue and a sense of real fear for the characters so there's at least some way the audience will want to root for them to make it out alive.
What made it empathetic in regards to the audience would be the plot element of Jen's pregnancy but otherwise I had no wish for them to make it out alive -- although I knew they would -- because their characters were so shallow in speech and in background while the circumstances they were in were even more bland and uninteresting. I don't even know why they had to go through with it if it was only for the suspense, which even then was lacking. Yeah, we didn't know who could they trust and who they could turn to, but what have they really discovered about each other during the journey? They were already deeply in love and all that this series of events did was made them stagger, as opposed to fall and regain their devotion and respect for one another, which would have been a little more satiable and substantial in regards to the type of movie this is. With no real expectations or pressure being placed on the story as opposed to how the dialogue and wit of the characters could make up for it, the writers didn't do enough with the concept they had on the cutting board and in turn didn't show us their grit and dedication for getting it right even if there are a limited amount of ideas on that board.
Enormously disappointed by the entire production, I found it very difficult to even contrive any sort of meaning that this film holds. Devastating as it may sound, this film may be one of the few which still hold me hostage when it comes to finding a suitable message in the sickening concoction of pointlessness which was created for our apparent enjoyment.
Basically, if you're that much of a masochist, go see this movie 'cause it caused me nothing but a severe headache. However, I do have an odd thought about how their neighborhood turned out after their near death experience, especially if they took out nearly everyone there. Sickening. Also if my father would have the guts to attempt to murder my husband, I don't think I would be as calm and collected as Jen would be. It's a little sensitive but so is the entire movie. Flustered would be your initial reaction but if you find even a speck of meaning in this film, I urge you to spill the beans since I'm as dumbfounded as I've ever been. Ouch, there's my headache again!
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