A must see

Rating: Null/10 (14 February 2005)

The Romantic Comedy genre is pretty simple. Formulaic, even. There's very little room within that rigid framework for a genuinely good movie.
As Will Smith shot off a direct address to the audience, a sly Alfie-like dissertation on how to get a girl, the groundwork was already being laid for a genuinely great Romantic Comedy.
Will Smith's performance as the scarred, guarded "Hitch," has more nuance than can be rolled into the entire cast of most romantic comedies. The disparate subplots around him could probably support a movie on their own, and his supporting cast is beyond hilarious.
But beyond that, this is a movie that actually explores the line between love and sex, the difference between a date and true love. The gun-shy Hitch, although he doesn't believe in his own product, doesn't sell 'success' between the sheets, or a brief shot of instant romance; he sells true love, relationships that can last forever.
When he's approached by a player who just wants to 'bang' a memorable girl out of his mind so he can get on with his life, he turns him down in no uncertain terms.
Of course, in a movie with this many different ideas, the supporting cast must deliver. Kevin James (TV's King of Queens), as Hitch's latest client, delivers. He's hopeless. He's helpless. He's the clueless dork that we all suspect resides just below our cool skin. He's the lovable guy who cannot even speak to the woman of his dreams.
Hitch is the man we all wish we were, the smooth talker that understands the secret language women speak, the man who understands what they think, and can model an approach for any woman.
As he cautions during the opening titles, "I can't make it happen. I can only give you the opportunity." It's a lie, of course. Part of the package is perfect dates, coaching on that perfect kiss (where overzealousness is not a good trait), and even dance lessons.
Director Andy Tennant (Ever After) then begins to mine the rich material he's set up, letting us in on the secret that there's more Hitch in Kevin James than he realizes, and there's more lovable dork in Hitch than he realizes.
Eva Mendes (Once Upon a Time in Mexico) plays another cynic, a newspaper gossip columnist searching for the Love Doctor while being romanced by an unsuspecting Hitch (huh, I wonder if there'll be a conflict between the two based on this?).
Mendes puts in a fine performance, transcending Romantic Interest to actually come alive as a wary, world-weary reporter who understands all too well what guys want, and is ready to shoot them down as quickly as possible, while at the same time desperately clinging to dying dreams of true love.
As the two leads circle, each of them hyper-aware of the possibility of being played, they both try to generate the best possible image of themselves, hyping them upbeing the player they both fear. That's Hitch's job, after all.
But where he's succeeded with other men, he fails miserably on his own turf, each date quickly devolving into a disaster of comic proportions. He cannot take Mendes out on a skidoo without kicking her in the head; he can't take her out to eat without exploding in the worst allergic reaction since Linda Blair ate a demon that didn't agree with her in The Exorcist.
But these shared disasters start to form the basis for a real relationship, and you can almost smell disaster in the air. It comes, predictably, in a scene richly punctuated by the Temptations Can't Get Next To You, a subtle irony. As the lead singer boasts of his omnipotence and bemoans his inability to get the girl, we watch Hitch, the man with all the answers, finally run out of answers.
The rich denouement of the movie is when Hitch finally realizes that his smooth ways have never been what made the relationships he's orchestrated work. It's been the dedication of men like lovable dork Kevin James, who doesn't care what a fool he makes of himself if he can just have one chance to make rich girl Allegra Cole happy.
My other greatest fear walking into this movie was shallow racial stereotypes. From the trailer I expected the 'fly' black man to teach the rhythm-less white man to dance and be cool.
But in the hilarious final sequence we see Will Smith bust out a few lovably dorky moves of his own, and we realize that Hitch's dance lessons weren't about dancing at all, he was just showing Kevin James how to hide an aspect of himself, the dorky dancer aspect, an aspect Hitch has kept carefully hidden.
Ultimately, we realize that Hitch's relationship is better, more real because it lacked the slickness of the pre-planned event he wanted it to be, because it lacked the smoothness of a memorized line. His obsession with the perfect date and being the perfect man are actually a dead end, and he can't really let Eva Mendes in unless he has the courage to show her all of himeven the dorky dancer underneath.
In a movie about fronts and what women want, the ultimate answer is simple: get real.
Tennant keeps the movie moving constantly, with a sense of pace only matched by the whirling camera work. The movie snaps from scene to scene, bounding over deep waters even as the screen is kept as well-lit and crisp as we expect from a genre piece so squeaky-clean.
Hitch is a rare treasure, a movie that embraces the rules of the genre as a way of exploring love, sex, and the murky water in between. It transcends the boundaries of romantic comedy and stereotypes, creating a movie that subverts the genre and explodes Hollywood stereotypes.