Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
First, here’s a review we got from a reader:
Hello Harry,
Moonshine here. Many moons ago, I wrote a review for you of PLEASANTVILLE from my perspective as a partially color-blind guy. I’ve gone into review hibernation in the five years since, but just last night had the opportunity to catch a working print of an upcoming flick and thought I’d try my hand at the reviewing game again.
Five years ago, I confessed two things in my review: 1) my color-blindness, which affected my PLEASANTVILLE viewing experience, and 2) my tendency to favor darker film fare. For this review, I’ll reiterate that second confession. More often than not, you’ll find me standing in line to see a MYSTIC RIVER than an ELF (although I’ve seen both, and enjoyed them a great deal). With my fondness for more serious flicks, this time of year is usually a feast for me. It’s Oscar qualification time, Independent Spirit Awards, critics’ picks. It’s like a buffet out there and I’m in movie heaven. But in and amongst the more sober, awards-caliber stuff, I like to take in the occasional piece of mindless fluff. It’s the holidays after all. Sure the turkey and stuffing’s great, but it’s also a time to gorge on cheese and sweets.
When I was offered the chance to check out Dreamworks’ upcoming romantic comedy WIN A DATE WITH TAD HAMILTON!, I figured I’d get a chance to satisfy my sweet tooth for cinematic junk food, and I’m happy to say I wasn’t disappointed. TAD is a film that gleefully displays its populist sitcom and soap opera roots. It stars recognizable TV stars like Topher Grace, Josh Duhamel, Gary Cole, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Sean Hayes. It’s written by Victor Levin, who made his first significant mark on Hollywood as a writer/producer on MAD ABOUT YOU. And it’s directed by Richard Luketic, who directed that explosion of girly pink excess LEGALLY BLONDE.
The storyline finds movie star Tad Hamilton having a hard time getting parts because of his Hollywood bad boy image. In an effort to soften him up a bit and make him more palatable to studio muckety-mucks, Hamilton’s agent and manager (both hilariously named Richard Levy), cook up a contest in which a smalltown fan will win a date with Tad. That fan turns out to be a grocery store clerk named Rosalee Futch, a gorgeous blonde sweetheart who lives a simple life in rural West Virginia with her dad, her best friend Cathy, and her secretly lovesick boss Pete. Rosalee jets to L.A. for her date with a reluctant Tad, but the jaded celebrity is quickly won over by the smalltown girl’s beauty and uncomplicated charm. Hoping to get a slice of the simple life for himself, Tad follows Rosalee home to West Virginia, and ends up complicating everyone else’s lives instead.
And for the spoiler-wary, don’t worry. The set-up above is only the first fifteen minutes of the film. It’s high concept, all the way, and if you’re willing to take the full ride, it’s a funny and enjoyable way to while away 90 minutes of your life. And, best of all, it’s even kinda smart. When Cathy sends Rosalee off for her date with Tad, she demands a recap in as much bodice-ripping, romance novel detail as Rosalee can muster. “I want similes!” Cathy instructs Rosalee, and I have to applaud a movie that hails the virtues of rural folks to an audience likely to be made up of the same sort of people, and allows them the compliment of knowing what the word “simile” means without stopping to explain it.
Josh Duhamel, who has previously only been seen on ALL MY CHILDREN and LAS VEGAS, is likely to pick up a big amount of buzz (a la Josh Lucas in SWEET HOME ALABAMA) if this movie hits like it should. Dreamworks reportedly considered other more familiar actors like Ben Affleck, Hugh Grant and Heath Ledger for the role of Tad, but ultimately decided to go with the lesser known Duhamel and I think their casting decision was a winner. If there was anything over-the-top corny about this movie, it was Tad Hamilton’s career. If you believe the hype within the film, Tad would surely be the hardest working actor in the business, with a good three or four movies per year. And all of them with Tad as the leading man. Ben, Hugh and Heath could only wish to have the stamina to handle that kind of workload. And Tad’s bad boy image is a total laugh. He dates a lot of hot chicks! He drinks! He smokes cigarettes! He drives fast! Pretty much, that’s about the worst of Tad we ever see, but it’s apparently “bad boy” enough to put his career in limbo. Casting someone like Ben, Hugh or Heath in such a role would likely have produced way too many uncomfortable chuckles because Ben, Hugh and Heath already bring their own “bad boy” baggage to the game. Getting back to Duhamel, specifically, this role fits him well. You can see him as a charismatic leading man, who can bounce from a romance, to a war movie, to an action pic, with female and male fans happily following him all the way. He’s visibly taller than anybody else in the movie. He’s got a deep, throaty voice. He’s funny. He’s charming and basically kind, despite his alleged “bad boy” image. And he’s a sickeningly handsome dreamboat, who literally elicited gasps from the ladies in my audience when he doffed his shirt in one scene. It’s almost too bad he’s gotten himself tied down to LAS VEGAS on TV, because he could easily move into a full-time feature career based on the charisma he shows here.
Almost as much a revelation in this flick is Topher Grace, as Rosalee’s lovesick pal Pete. While not top-lined in the credits or featured in the title, Pete’s the real star of this movie. As much as I hate the comparison, he’s the Julia Roberts character in this one. But unlike Roberts’ character in the similarly-themed MY BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING, Pete’s a lot easier to root for. And you want to root for him. He’s a soft-hearted hero that the ladies will find adorable, but still strong enough that guys who get dragged to this one by their girlfriends will be able to identify with. He’s actually not a far cry from Eric Forman, the character Grace plays on THAT 70’s SHOW, but he’s somewhat less befuddled than Eric. He knows what he wants, he’s a future in front of him, he’s worked hard to get there, and…oh, yeah…he’s in love with Rosalee and just can’t seem to spit it out.
The supporting cast for this one is also a winner. ED’s Ginnifer Goodwin is a hoot as Rosalee’s best friend, Cathy. Imagine a Janeane Garofalo-type hooked on trashy Fabio romances, and you’ve got Cathy to a T. Nathan Lane and Sean Hayes turn in a few hilarious scenes as Richard Levy and Richard Levy, Tad’s agent and manager. Lane doesn’t stray too far from his usual performance, but Hayes surprises by dropping the “Just Jack” shriek, while retaining the hyperkinetic energy of his WILL & GRACE character. But the funniest surprise is Gary Cole, as Rosalee’s dad, who gets swept up in the celebrity hype and tries to style himself as a lingo-spouting, hip Hollywood insider. Every scene he’s in zings. I only wish he were in the film more.
How ‘bout some flaws? Well, Cole doesn’t appear until about thirty minutes into the film, and that’s a shame. His character should have been developed a little more, and there are a couple scenes in the beginning of the film where his presence could and should have been established. Even more missing in action is Rosalee’s mom. She simply doesn’t exist. She isn’t mentioned, her absence isn’t mentioned. And as luminous a presence as Rosalee is, and is supposed to be in order to attract the ardor of her hometown sweetheart as well as America’s biggest movie star, I had a hard time believing that a mother didn’t play some role in building that character.
And that leads me to Rosalee herself. Kate Bosworth is gorgeous, and this film definitely puts her in line behind Reese Witherspoon and Kate Hudson as a candidate for America’s sweetheart. On her date with Tad, she appears in a knockout blue dress that lives up to her BLUE CRUSH star turn. She flashes a few million smiles. She bats her pretty eyes. She praises the virtues of her smalltown life. But there should be more to her than that, and there simply isn’t. This isn’t the fault of Bosworth. It’s just that the role is a little underdeveloped. Ultimately, the date being won in this movie is with Rosalee Futch, not the hunky movie star of the title. Rosalee’s the prize being vied for and if there’s anything I wish this movie showed us more of, it would be why Rosalee was that much better than any other pretty girl from her smalltown West Virginia home.
Still, I’m overanalyzing a total soufflé of a movie, and I recognize the danger in that. Poke one of those holes too hard, and the hole thing will deflate in a flash. Instead, I’ll just praise WIN A DATE WITH TAD HAMILTON! as the sugary little confection that it is. Take your significant other out to see it when you’re both in the mood for nothing more than a smile, and maybe a little inspiration to snuggle, and you won’t go home disappointed.
Take care,
Moonshine
Curious at all? I am, if only for Topher Grace, who I am convinced will eventually break out and become a movie star. He’s got ridiculously great timing. Here’s a list of the links for the trailer, whatever size you want...
Harry, below are links the Tad Hamilton trailer. the official website is RIGHT HERE!!
Quicktime 5 (embed 640w x 288h) High Resolution (33MB)
QuickTime 5 (embed 480w x 216h) Large
QuickTime 5 (embed 352w x 160h) Medium
QuickTime 5 (embed 240w x 112h) Small
RealPlayer G2 (w/ Real 8 codecs) 500kb/sec
RealPlayer G2 (w/ Real 8 codecs) 300kb/sec
RealPlayer G2 (w/ Real 8 codecs) 150kb/sec
RealPlayer G2 (w/ Real 8 codecs) 56kb/sec
Thanks for the review and for the links.
"Moriarty" out.
