Rom-Com Mania

So since I was snowed in this weekend due to the first Blizzard of 2010 in the DC metropolitan area, I decided to rent some videos to pass the time. Two of my picks included the rom-com's (short for romantic comedies): Weather Girl and The Accidental Husband.

Weather Girl is a low budget, independent film written and directed by Blayne Weaver, starring Tricia O'Kelley, Ryan Devlin, and Patrick J. Adams. I picked it up from the video store because the story seemed interesting. However, I had low expectations as I didn't know any of the main leads and I had never heard of the movie before. But it definitely surprised me. This cute romantic comedy is about a woman in her mid-30's, played by Tricia O'Kelley, who loses her job as the "sassy weather girl" because of a melt down on national television when her boyfriend, who is a news anchor cheats on her. So she has to move in her with her brother, while she struggles to find a job. So will Sylvia's life ever fall back into place? Watch and find out.

Tricia O'Kelly is not that impressive as the main lead, Sylvia; however Ryan Devlin is quite convincing as Sylvia's brother, Walt. Patrick J. Adams also did a good job as Byron, Walt's best friend, who has the "hots" for Sylvia. Mark Harmon looked terrible in the movie and was not very convincing as the cheating news anchor, Dale.

The Accidental Husband, on the other hand, stars well-known actors such as Colin Firth, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Grey's Anatomy, P.S. I Love You), and Uma Thurman. Even though I am not a huge fan of the leading actors except for Colin Firth, when I found out that the movie was directed by Griffin Dunne, whose performance in the TV series, Trust Me, I quite enjoyed, I had high hopes for the film. However, I was quite disappointed.

The plot of the movie revolves around Dr. Emma Lloyd (Uma Thurman), a "love doctor" who provides love advice to women on her radio show. Patrick Sullivan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a New York fire fighter, is devastated when his fiance dumps him due to her advice. So in order to teach her a lesson, he with the help of his "hacker" friend, the son of his Indian neighbor, fake marries her on the internet. Oblivious to this and assuming it is a computer glitch, Emma finds Patrick to get an annulment so she can marry her fiance, Richard Bratton (Colin Firth). However, in the process of Emma getting the annulment and Patrick teaching her a lesson, they fall for each other. Big surprise - huh! Will Emma ever find out the truth about Patrick? Who will she choose in the end? Well, I'm sure you can guess so don't even bother wasting your time and money watching this predictable rom-com.

Even Colin Firth, whose performances I quite enjoyed in Bridget Jones Diary, Love Actually, and What a Girl Wants, was quite disappointing in the film - what was with his obsession to start eating when he was upset or worried. I don't understand what that had to do with the plot. Uma Thurman and Jeffrey Dean Morgan were not that convincing either. I didn't quite understand how they fell in love with each other; it seemed like they fell in love too quickly just after one meeting.

This just shows that you don't need a big budget to make a good and interesting film.