What was so wrong with him? Someone else in this thread called Paul a "square," which I do get (and incidentally, what's wrong with that?), but a "douche"? How so? He always treated her with utmost respect. As for her family being "awful to her," well, there was certainly no love lost between his mother and her (although not entirely irrationally), but everyone else treated her well -- especially his father. Remember, Kelly wasn't family, just the woman his mother wanted him to marry.
And why wouldn't Gwyneth chase after him? The whole reason she got on ChristianMingle.com was because she was looking for a decent guy, and she hadn't had much luck finding one until then. Lots of women, especially when they're young, are attracted to "bad boys", because of the excitement they promise. When he turns out to be an utter jerk (and maybe even abusive), they shouldn't be so surprised. At some point, they often wise up and look for decent men who will respect and cherish them. That's what she was doing.
As for the lack of chemistry, I think it's just the actors in this case, more than anything else. They're both perfectly fine, but not every movie couple "works", you know? Some on-screen pairings just click, even in spite of awful dialogue or clumsy direction (can you imagine, for instance, a Bogart/Bacall scene that wouldn't work?), and some don't (Katie Holmes/Christian Bale in Batman Begins), no matter how well-written their parts may be.
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MacallisterBurn
7 years ago
I think it's the fact that he doesn't have a personality. There's nothing memorable about him except that he's a Christian. If all she's looking for is a decent guy, then I guess it could work in a fairytale. But if she's looking for a decent guy who also isn't completely awkward and pretty boring, I would think she could find one on that website if she kept trying (but of course, this is a 90 minute advertisement, so they won't make it seem like your first date on the site may not be successful).
Plus, the dialogue between the two of them is not well-written by any means. I don't know about the guy that plays Paul, but Lacey Chabert is a funny actress when she's in a movie with a good script. They both seemed weak in this movie, but I would blame that on the awkward screenwriting rather than the actors (although I did find her performance more convincing than Paul's). Stephen Tobolowsky is a wonderful character actor, but even his lines seemed too weak and strange for him to convincingly pull his part off. On a side note, the entire hair regrowth subplot was bizarre to me. In my opinion, a very uncomfortable script all around even by contemporary Christian movie standards.
As for the douche part, it wasn't very considerate of him to not tell her he was leaving for a month (I think it was) and then also to expect her to drop everything and come with him. Additionally, while I understand that she lied to him, she was clearly attempting to become a Christian, so his reaction seemed a bit over the top. I mean, she risked her job and came all the way to Mexico, and he's just like nah go home. Not to mention the end where he comes down to Mexico a whole year later and expects her to take him back after what appears to be the second his new relationship doesn't work out? I know this is a rom com, but come on.
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antiphrasist
7 years ago
Fair enough, especially vis-a-vis Stephen Tobolowsky. He's fantastic, but had very little to work with. Actually, the only part that made me laugh appeared to have been an accident: when John O'Hurley (another good character actor who's gotten a lot of mileage out of his voice alone) referred to his mother as, "Bald as a baby's butt," Stephen could barely stifle his laughter. I honestly believe that was entirely spontaneous, and Bernsen left it in because it was the funniest part of the entire picture!
As you said, this project does seem much like a "90-minute advertisement," unless one sees it (as I do) as a sort of squeaky-clean, 1950s-esque, idealized morality play. I doubt Corbin Bernsen's target audience included anyone other than Christians, who are more likely to forgive him his dialogue's shortcomings ;)
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