A
film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net on Dec. 31, 2001.
For
co-writer/director James Mangold, Kate & Leopold marks a
change-of-pace. Mangold, whose previous efforts (Heavy, Copland, Girl Interrupted) have been dark, serious, and
broody, has allowed himself to lighten up considerably this time around.
Although he might not seem to be the perfect choice to direct a Meg Ryan
romantic comedy, he proves himself up to the task. (Perhaps he viewed it as a
challenge.) Kate & Leopold
delivers the kind of warm, familiar mixed brew of romance, humor, light drama,
and pleasant character interaction that has made many of Ryan's similar
endeavors successful box office performers. There's nothing surprising about
this movie, but it does what it's supposed to do, allowing us to leave the
theater with a warm glow and a pleasantly satisfied feeling. Cynics,
anti-romantics, and tough guys will, of course, despise it. Your appreciation
of the Meg Ryan romantic comedy canon will be a good indicator of how you will
react to Kate & Leopold.
In
an attempt to add some freshness to the romance, Kate & Leopold throws a little science fiction flavoring into
the cinematic stew. As it turns out, however, while this aspect of the film
spices things up, it doesn't lead to anything ground-breaking. The Twilight Zone is kept at bay. It's
more of a means to create a fish-out-of-water subplot than to investigate the
paradoxes of time travel. But, as movies like Just Visiting have emphasized, the comic potential of placing a man
from the past in our present isn't as great as one might expect. And perhaps Kate & Leopold's twist might have seemed more original if
it hadn't been employed so recently in another motion picture. Brad Anderson's
2000 feature, Happy Accidents, paired
Marisa Tomei and Vincent D'Onofrio in the tale of a man who came back in time
to fall in love. In Kate & Leopold,
the time traveler is from the past, but there are similarities. And, in both
cases, the love story aspect works better than the science fiction one.
Leopold,
the Duke of Albany (Hugh Jackman),
lives a life of privilege in 1876 until the night when he spies a stranger in
his uncle's house. He pursues the man and ends up in 2001 New York City, in the
apartment of Stuart (Liev Schreiber),
his great-great-grandson. When Stuart is involved in an elevator accident that
lands him in the hospital before he can send Leopold back to 1876, the Duke
comes under the care of Stuart's ex-girlfriend and downstairs neighbor, Kate
(Meg Ryan), and her actor brother, Charlie (Breckin Meyer). Kate knows the truth about Leopold, but doesn't
believe it, and she bears her obligation of looking after him like a burden -
until she realizes that he would be the perfect spokesperson for an advertising
campaign her marketing company is working on. Suddenly, hard-bitten, unromantic
Kate and Leopold, the psychotic escapee
from a Renaissance Fair, are spending quite a bit of time together and
falling in love. But there's an obvious problem in the form of a 125-year age
gap.
Despite
not having made a romantic comedy since 1998's You've Got Mail, Ryan slides smoothly into the part, exhibiting all
the facial quirks and personality tics (not to mention the general luminosity)
that have made her so popular over the years. Her opposite, Hugh Jackman, is
guaranteed to make female viewers swoon. With an on-screen persona not unlike
that of Rupert Everett in An Ideal
Husband, Jackman's Leopold proves to be the perfect man - suave, handsome,
intelligent, caring, capable, and a great dancer. In supporting roles, Liev
Schreiber and Breckin Meyer provide most of the comic relief. Other secondary
performers include Natasha Lyonne as
Kate's assistant and Bradley Whitford
as her boss.
One
could argue that the dialogue in Kate
& Leopold is a cut above that from many of Ryan's previous romantic
comedies (except perhaps When Harry Met
Sally…), but if this film is relying on its occasional zingers and smart
bits of conversation to get bodies in theater seats, it's in trouble. People
will go to see Ryan, who's as cute at age 40 as she was in her late 20s, and
Jackman, who continues to prove that his range extends beyond that of playing
Wolverine in X-Men. The chemistry
between these two bubbles pleasantly. There's no powerful sexual attraction,
but this movie is more about innocent romance than passion, so it works. Like
most of Ryan's films, Kate & Leopold succeeds
as a diversion (although, at two hours in length, it's too long). It is
cinematic cotton candy - insubstantial perhaps, but ultimately sweet and
pleasant to the taste. [Berardinelli’s rating: *** out of 4]
Labels:
comedy, fantasy, period, rom-com-faves, romance, sci-fi, space-time
Ryan Dunne (Freddie Prinze Jr.) has lived his whole life in the town of Chatham, on Cape Cod, nurturing his dream of becoming a major league baseball pitcher. Each summer as the Cape Cod summer league starts, college players from around the country arrive in Chatham, Wareham, Hyannisport and the other resort towns, filling out the local teams, rooming with local families, and hoping to be seen by the professional scouts who come to the games. Ryan played baseball at Boston College and Framingham State College, washing out of both. This is his last chance, and he's been offered a pitching slot on the Chatham A's. But Ryan took his mother's death very hard; his father Sean (Fred Ward), his brother Mike (Jason Gedrick) and his coach (Brian Dennehy) all wonder whether he still has the drive to succeed.
