Catch & Release (2006)
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Format Viewed: DVD
Filmography links and data courtesy of The Internet Movie Database.
Long overdue, this was a great story to spend the evening watching, and not only because Kevin Smith played his role to a tee!
I’ve been waiting to see Catch & Release for a long time now because as much as I’d wanted to catch it during the theatrical release, apparently it must not have done so hot at the box office because only a week or two after its name appeared on the marquee, it was already on its way out and needless to say, I was more than a little miffed. Only a few months prior, I’d had the opportunity to see Kevin Smith live at one of his ever-popular Q&A sessions over in Orlando and after a whopping seven hours of questions and answers, let’s just say my enthusiasm for all things Kevin Smith had once again been renewed for another year! I’d just seen Clerks 2 earlier that summer, followed by the Q&A in September, then came the DVD release of An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder in November and finally the theatrical release of Catch & Release in January. So yeah, it’s been a long six months…
But while Kevin Smith initially attracted me to this flick and his role in the movie was nothing short of spectacular, the film actually did quite well for me as a whole, which made me happy because with most romantic comedies, I honestly either end up loving them or hating them – there is no in between. Catch & Release did a great job of throwing a horrific tragedy at us right off the bat, and then allowing us to watch as the characters each dealt with what was unfolding in very real ways … a tricky line to follow, nonetheless, because as we all know too well, often times real life just isn’t very funny, especially when attempting to cope with death and whatnot. This film was entirely different, however – it was pleasant to watch, it kept the beat going with an extra dose of humor when things started getting a little too deep, and yet it didn’t hold any punches with the touchy spots, either. I tell ya, for only having such a short release at the box office, any guy who got dragged to the theater for date night with this romantic comedy got off easy.
The only real detractor that I felt in this movie, though, was the casting and that came from a combination of either not knowing the actors at all prior to seeing this movie (for Sam Jaeger) or having only seen the actors in one or two roles, thus stereotyping them into a mindset that didn’t really lend well for this particular flick (as in Timothy Olyphant). Juliette Lewis had me on edge for a while, but I really warmed up to her character as we got to know her a little better, and as for both Kevin Smith and Jennifer Garner – well, both performances were just outstanding and were the icing on the cake for me. Jennifer Garner has always had a corner of my eye as that sexy actress who never seemed to be in enough of the huge blockbusters, whereas Kevin Smith’s shining in this film seemed to come simply from being allowed to be himself. From what I’ve learned about him from DVD commentaries and Q&A’s and blog entries over the years, so many of his scenes in the flick just seemed like they were more of Kevin just speaking as he would in any given scene and less like they were scripted, to a point where I almost checked to see if he had played any part in actually writing the script to some degree! It was also his interactions with Juliette Lewis’ character that helped me warm up to her presence in the movie, and just once again proved that the man certainly has the entertainment talent to act way beyond the role of simply Silent Bob.
All in all, Catch & Release was a great end to a long week, and in fact an even longer period from when I first heard about and began anticipating the flick, and I’m happy to say that it was still very much worth the wait. Boyfriends and husbands should take note that if they find themselves owing their better halves a movie night with something venturing into the romance territory, you can’t go wrong with Netflix’ing this movie and serving it up with a bottle of cheap wine and your favorite preference in pizza. Enjoy…
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