Sloppiness Is Unforgivable

Rating: 6/10 (16 December 2006)

Okay, this is a feelgood chick flick and it's enjoyable to watch but you forget it as you leave the foyer. But really they should pay researchers a decent salary so that they wouldn't come up with howlers like 'Cary Grant was born in Surrey'. 'How do you know'. 'He told me once'. Now this is a great way to delineate the Eli Wallach character economically BUT, Cary Grant was born in SURREY! No way, Jose; Cary Grant, nee Archibald Leach, was born in Bristol, more than one hundred miles from Surrey. Okay, most of the popcorn crowd who are the target audience for this movie won't care one way or the other even if they've ever HEARD of Cary Grant but it's a truism of creative writing that if you get the small details wrong you won't fare much better with the big ones. This is an error that's mind-boggling especially since the misinformation is put into the mouth of the ONE character who was around when Hollywood was a factory town, turning out product, yes, but largely Quality product, product in fact of the kind that THIS film aspires to but misses by about from here to Guatamala. What are the chances realistically that FOUR unattached people ALL with glamorous jobs, affluent, well-dressed and reasonably attractive AND (presumably) a wide circle of friends would have no Christmas plans that couldn't be broken on five minutes notice so much so that two of them can and do fly about 6,000 miles on a whim. Sloppiness is everywhere. Take the Jude Law character. He turns up on his sister's doorstep around midnight having spent the evening getting drunk in the local pub. Nothing wrong with that, it's even reasonably realistic EXCEPT: That within a half hour this character is revealed to be the widowed and very CARING father of two daughters around ten years old. True, it is explained that on the night in question they were staying with their grandparents but would a character like this REALLY drink himself senseless when he has a few hours off. Hardly. Still, there you go; the thing is that with this type of movie you're not supposed to ASK awkward questions like this, but why not? Surely it's just as easy to write a credible feelgood script as a sloppy one. Most of the principals turn in a competent job though Kate Winslett isn't quite able to convey the REAL anguish of being dumped. To do so she would need to EMPATHISE with the caring, blameless husband she herself dumped for a new lover who had more to offer in the way of both earning power and cachet. It'll probably perform well over the Christmas period but this time next year they'll be giving the DVD away with the Daily Telegraph no doubt as part of the deal for the outrageous product placement of having Winslett work there.