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.

Birds of America (2008)

Birds of America focus on a very dysfunctional family. With a father suicide and a mother running away, Morrie (Matthew Perry) is left raising his 7 year old sister Ida (Ginnifer Goodwin) and 11 year old brother Jay (Ben Foster) at the age of 18. We come into their life fifteen years later when circumstance brings both siblings back to their childhood home where Morrie now lives with his wife Betty (Lauren Graham). Two other supporting roles are their neighbors Laura (Hillary Swank) and Paul (Gary Wilmes).


Morrie and Betty lives according to their plan, which includes kissing up to their neighbors as Paul got an important role at the University where Morrie teaches and he's his eyes set at tenure there. They are also holding out on making children until tenure, while Betty is getting inpatient.

The return of the two more free-spirited siblings shakes up life as the couple knew it, but it's really not a lot happening you can't predict. That's also the movies huge downfall as its choices can be seen a mile coming. Some good scenes and some interesting scenes, but mostly recycled material we've seen before.

Perry, Foster and Goodwin all delivers good acting performances. I'm less impressed by Graham, but her part really wasn't very interesting either. The same can be said about both the acting and roles of the neighbors, but especially Swank feels like a wasted actress on such a forgettable part. I take from this movie another confirmation of Perry's and Foster's skills, and note Goodwin as a name I hope to see more from in the time to come. I'm on the other hand not in a hurry to see more from writer Elyse Friedman or director Craig Lucas.