Fools Rush In (1997)

Director: Andy Tennant
Writer: Story: Joan Taylor, Katherine Reback Screenplay: Katherine Reback
Cast: Salma Hayek, Matthew Perry
Genre: Rom-Com

Fools Rush In was made a couple of seasons into "Friends", making Perry one of the moneymaker names of the genre at the time. Sadly it also means this part doesn't walk too far apart his Chandler Bing character from Friends, but without a lot of the needed one-liners to pull it off for almost two hours.

I like the premise. Two worlds collide in the aftermath of an one night stand, with cultural, religious and a lot of other subjects dividing them. I also enjoyed the very beginning of the movie. Both characters portrayed in their habitat, as Alex (Perry) is shown in his workaholic big city life and Isabel (Hayek) is shown beautiful and relaxed floating down a river in Mexico. From there the movie manages to create a nice way to mix up their lives, keeping the much needed feel still.

A pregnancy kicks of the real story, but we're about one-fourth into the movie. The second-fourth shows us their differences, without going over the top in any way, and I can accept it. From there they loose them self making this. The funny leaves the door, the differences is either pitched over the top or in wrong categories and mostly they forget to give the leading characters time to show chemistry on screen. Without it, our interest in the character quickly fade, and the last third of the movie we just want it to be over as quick as possible.

So in short I think they had the idea and they cast Isabel perfectly, as I can watch Salma shout at me for hours without looking for the remote. They just rewrote Chandler Bing, they left out funny as soon as they thought they had to get all drama and they didn't take the time to let us know enough about how they interact in everyday life. A movie idea someone can take with them and easily improve a lot, making it a possible hit.