Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 2:01 - Released 12/25/01
KATE & LEOPOLD
Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 2:01 - Released 12/25/01
What can one say about a feelgood romance starring Meg Ryan, the
queen of feelgood romances, and written by Steven Rogers, whose
output includes sappy tear-jerkers like Stepmom
and Hope Floats? Ryan, an
adequate actress who is quickly becoming associated with films
that don't require acting, can do this type of role in her sleep
(or Sleepless, for that matter), and one's enjoyment of
her work is based primarily on whether one likes the one-note
character she creates for these films. With Rogers's clever but
predictable text, and under the direction of James Mangold (Girl, Interrupted), who co-wrote
the script, Ryan creates yet another modern professional woman
who falls in love with a guy she doesn't like at first (played
by Hugh Jackman). The main difference is that this time, instead
of being from across the continent, or on the other end of her
computer connection, or on the other side of the life/death boundary,
he's from 1876. Talk about robbing the cradle.
The film starts in 19th-century New York City, which is the
vacation home of Hugh's British character, Leopold Mountbatten,
3rd Duke of Albany. A charming, bored bachelor not unlike Rupert
Everett's Lord Goring in An Ideal
Husband, Leopold is in no hurry to get married, especially
to a stupid, wealthy American girl. Everyone knows rich girls
don't go. An avid follower of science and technology (he's even
working on a new invention called the elevator), Leopold is more
interested in things like the opening ceremony of the Brooklyn
Bridge, where he notices an anachronistic-looking man (Liev Schreiber)
using a pocket camera with internal flash. Knowing full well that
Magicubes have not even been invented yet, Leopold follows the
man until they fall through a portal in the space-time continuum
and land precisely where they were, but 125 years later. Suddenly
stranded in present day NYC, Leopold learns that his tour guide
is scientist/inventor Stuart Besser, who has perfected a method
for time travel in which, if one jumps off the bridge at exactly
the right moment, one will be transported through time rather
than the traditional result of being squashed like a bloody pancake
in the street.
Stuart introduces Leopold to his neighbor and ex-girlfriend
Kate (Ryan), and then promptly falls down an elevator shaft (get
it?), so he is conveniently out of the picture for most of the
picture. While stranded in Stuart's apartment, Leopold meets and
befriends Kate's brother Charlie (Breckin Meyer), learns how to
operate the TV remote, and starts freaking everyone out with his
proper behavior and outdated sensibilities. Predictably, he sweeps
the initially skeptical Kate off her feet, showing up her lecherous
boss (Bradley Whitford) and teaching Charlie how to make it with
babes. Then just as he and Kate are about to jump in the sack,
Stuart reappears and tells him he has to go home. Dang—nothing
kills the mood in a sexual escapade like traveling 1¼ centuries
back in time.
Ryan and Jackman are adequate in this frothy romance, but nothing more. Their romantic chemistry is practically nonexistent, but they handle their characterizations well and know how to kiss. Otherwise, this is an average, workmanlike production, virtually indistinguishable from any other example of the pat, easily digested, box-office-successful formula faithfully churned out by Hollywood every day of the year. ***