The most rewarding scenes come when the farcical nature of the plot really kicks in; and as our intrepid heroines don't even get a SNIFF of the man they're looking for until about 30 minutes or so down the track, some viewers may well have given up hope before things start to get going. It's a real shame if that's the case, too; because there's an old-style 'cute' movie here, buried at times under lots of unnecessary padding. If I wanted to see how gorgeous Venice looks - I'd either go there or buy a brochure, travelogue is a genre that's pretty unedifying in cinematic terms...
Downey manages the trick of making his character enormously likeable, thus rescuing the script from the hole the scriptwriters and Tomei have dug themselves into with their female lead. OK, so the somewhat 'outlandish' plot necessarily REQUIRES a character of an 'impulsive' nature to make it work, but Faith is so annoyingly pigheaded and shrewish at times that it really becomes difficult to harbour sympathetic feelings toward her. Thankfully though, the sheer understated charm of Downey's performance gradually begins to counteract this. In grateful debt to those 'surprises' I mentioned earlier, what ultimately emerges therefore is a charming romantic trifle with a couple of serious flaws. These niggles unfortunately prevented the movie from putting an even WIDER smile on my face - but it nevertheless concludes as being a jolly good show!
(7/10 or ***/***** in profile ratings system.)
Downey manages the trick of making his character enormously likeable, thus rescuing the script from the hole the scriptwriters and Tomei have dug themselves into with their female lead. OK, so the somewhat 'outlandish' plot necessarily REQUIRES a character of an 'impulsive' nature to make it work, but Faith is so annoyingly pigheaded and shrewish at times that it really becomes difficult to harbour sympathetic feelings toward her. Thankfully though, the sheer understated charm of Downey's performance gradually begins to counteract this. In grateful debt to those 'surprises' I mentioned earlier, what ultimately emerges therefore is a charming romantic trifle with a couple of serious flaws. These niggles unfortunately prevented the movie from putting an even WIDER smile on my face - but it nevertheless concludes as being a jolly good show!
(7/10 or ***/***** in profile ratings system.)