Released: February 29th, 2009
Starring: Elisabeth Harnois, Danneel Harris, Jensen Ackles, Clea DuVall, Sean Patrick Flanery
Writer/Director: Betsy Morris/David Mackey
[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]
***
Surprisingly good films are something I expected to find during this project, but honestly, this wasn't one I had considered. My choice of the film was mostly because of my love of "One Tree Hill", particularly season three. With two cast members from that season in this movie, it was something I added with crossed-fingers and a hope that it would be passable. Well, it was that and more.
"Ten Inch Hero" is one of those rare combinations of a romantic comedy and a coming-of-age story that doesn't make you roll your eyes. It follows the lives of young employees of a sandwich shop in California. We meet Piper (Harnois), Tish (Harris), Jen (DuVall) and Priestly (Ackles) on Piper's first day on the job, and she immediately meets all of your typical characters in romantic comedies: The "slut" (Tish), the sheltered one (Jen) and the comic relief (Priestly). To be honest, this would make a pretty good CW series because the four stories (five if you include the shop owner) could easily be spread out over a few seasons, and a sandwich shop makes a perfect central locale.
As the movie continues, the same cliches from this genre begin to appear, but something's different. Not in the story, but the way it's being told. The chemistry between the actors, which is one of the hardest things to create, is what makes this film believable and entertaining. The actors did an amazing job of taking a bare-bones story and making the audience care about the outcome, even though veteran watchers of the genre already knew the ending.
The writing in this movie is top-notch for a romantic comedy. It doesn't miss any of the beats, such as, Tish's storyline where she realizes that she is worth more than sex and stops looking at the superficial. Even the twists in the movie are pulled off without much groaning, except for the end when Priestly cleans himself up to gain the courage to ask out Tish.
This is the big swing and miss in the film, as it completely undoes everything that he stood for, and confirms everything that Jen says occurs to her. Also, it doesn't completely allow Tish's character to grow. And their bonding moment of having weird first names (Boaz and Platisha) is a too contrived.
All of the actors, which was a who's who of the WB and CW, were stellar in their roles. Sure, it's not like any of them are going to win awards for their performances, but they did something that I believe is tougher than acting in a drama: being good in a Rom-Com. There is a balance of comedy and drama that one needs to show in these films that few do well. Harris and Ackels, who are married in real life, are the standouts on the comedy end, and DuVall and Harnois hold down the drama side, with each actor not failing when needing to crossover.
"Ten Inch Hero" could easily become a guilty pleasure for me because it has three thing I look for: beautiful actresses, writing and performances that make laugh and a fun story. The romantic comedy gets a lot of negative buzz, and rightfully so, because most of it is crap, but every once in a while a movie shows exactly what the genre should be. There's no love triangle, no obvious choice for the protagonist and no script that looks like it was written from a template, but what it does have is a truly romantic story (but not self indulging) that feels like it could happen in reality.
Rating: 7/10 -- Fun movie with four underrated actors, who create characters that I could see working at my local sandwich shop. The story is so down-to-earth that I could see any of the storylines being told to me by a friend over drinks. If you enjoy the genre, it's definitely one to pick up. Maybe I'm just a sucker for a well-told, WB-ish story, but dammit I liked it.
No comments:
Post a Comment