CATCH AND RELEASE
US, 2006, 124 minutes, Colour.
Jennifer Garner, Timothy Olyphant, Sam Jaeger, Kevin Smith, Juliette Lewis, Joshua Friesen, Fiona Shaw.
Directed by Susannah Grant.
All the ingredients of an American romantic comedy. However, there is a pervading tone of seriousness that tempers the romantic touches. It is a star vehicle for Jennifer Garner after her success on television with Alias and her films, Electra and 13 Going on 30.
The film starts with sadness, Gray (Garner) speaking tearfully to her recently deceased fiance and regretting the final things she said to him. Her friends (Kevin Smith and Sam Jaeger) are supportive but, at the funeral, she encounters Fritz (Timothy Olyphant) her fiance’s best friend whom she finds obnoxious. The fiance’s mother (Fiona Shaw) has a harsh streak.
The film continues with the sadness but changes tack when she looks into the financial dealings of her fiance and discovers he is paying child support. The mother of the child (Juliette Lewis) wanders into the proceedings, not knowing about the death. Needless to say, a lot of emotional complications ensue. And, it should be said, the ending is a happy one, though not all the angles could be easily anticipated.
This is one of those popular pleasing stories that most people don’t mind seeing but would not necessarily choose to watch. It is an opportunity to see Jennifer Garner in a more emotional role. It also offers Jay and Silent Bob fans a chance to see more of Kevin Smith. Since Jennifer Garner is married to Ben Affleck, she is like a kind of sister-in-law to Smith who has had Affleck in most of his films. Smith is no Silent Bob here. In fact, he has a lot to say as an always-eating, size-challenged friend who is always putting his foot in his mouth but humanises, especially in his caring for his friend’s little boy. (And most of his dialogue sounds more like what he writes for his own films rather than the dialogue in this one.)
Susannah Grant has been a successful screenwriter (Erin Brockovich, Charlotte’s Web). This is her first film as director. It is one of those films offered as typical slice of life where limitations are initially to the fore but the characters have matured a little by the end.
1.A romantic comedy? A touch more serious? The comic touches? How satisfactorily did they blend? The audience identifying with characters, situations?
2.The town, apartments, the cemetery, markets? Authentic? The contrast with the finale at Los Angeles and the beach? The musical score and songs?
3.Gray and her voice-over, her relationship with Grady, his going on the trip, his death, her words of regret? Having to cope, her grief, the wake, her plan for the garden, loving Grady for six years, his friends? Her dislike of Fritz – going to the room, in the bath, his coming in with the worker, the sexual encounter, her revealing that she had seen this? His attitude? Her having to cope?
4.The meaning of the title and its relationship with (*to?) Gray, her relationships?
5.The effect of Grady’s death, going through his things, her knowledge of Grady, going to his mother, his mother wanting the ring back because of its family associations? Issues of money? Her discovery about his giving monthly subsidies to a woman, finding the woman’s letter, Fritz and her confronting him, his not telling the exact truth about the age of the child, finally revealing the affair? Her explaining this to Grady’s mother?
6.Maureen and her arrival, the situation, her letters, needing the money, her boy, his being mischievous in his behaviour, thinking that Gray was the cleaning lady, the return, meeting Dennis and Sam, her character, hard work, her study, massage, her massaging Sam, her honesty, not wanting the money, going to the market, Grady’s mother seeing the mother and child? Preparing the healthy meal for the group? The DNA test, her reaction that Grady was not the father? Gray and her reaction, her care for the child, for Maureen, the ring, wanting to sell it, talking things over with Grady’s mother? The future?
7.Fritz, obnoxious behaviour, his being Grady’s best friend, the discovery of his task in coming to the funeral, the clashes with Gray, his being ousted, yet the attraction, the bond, discussions, the sexual encounter, Gray seeing it as a mistake, her depending on him, his being transformed, his caddish behaviour, photography, his love for Gray, overhearing her comments to Dennis about not being in love, his leaving?
8.Dennis, sharing the apartment, in love with Gray, his work, love, grief? Expressing his love, Gray’s explanation and his acceptance of it?
9.Sam, sharing the apartment, work, with Dennis, his grief at Grady’s death, perpetually eating, size-challenged? His conversation – in the Kevin Smith film style? Taking Gray’s pills, the hospital? Advice? The friendship with Maureen, with the boy, playing with him, getting the massage – and a future with them?
10.Grady’s mother, aristocratic, the ring and her wanting it back, her harsh attitudes, seeing the child at the market, at the garden, the DNA information, the change in attitude, explaining to Gray that it was just the grief for her son?
11.The garden, everybody working, in memory of Grady?
12.Gray, the change in her life, having to learn, being seen as perfect, having to be herself, understanding Fritz as Grady’s friend, the friend that he could be completely natural and honest with, even with the affair, the money for Maureen? Her decision to leave, driving to California, the happy ending on the beach?
