Film Reviews

Imagine Me and You

• Rating:
• Director: Ol Parker.
• Starring: Piper Perabo, Lena Headey, Matthew Goode, Darren Boyd.
• Details: UK, 94mins, 15A.

Holocaust movies boast more romance and mute village idiots possess more funny one-liners than recent romantic comedies like Failure To Launch, Just Like Heaven or Rumour Has It. So writers of rom-coms must dive deeper and find something else to make the whole thing click before the entire genre goes belly up, right? Wrong! Imagine Me And You is one of the most unimaginative comedies in recent history. On her wedding day, pretty bride Rachel (Perabo) is to marry 'what-ho' groom Heck (Goode) and settle down to a cosy, upper middle class life. However, when beautiful lesbian florist Luce (Headey) catches her eye as she glides down the aisle, she begins to have other ideas. The pair strike up a friendship that threatens to grow into something more and Rachel is left to decide what she really wants. We're landed in Richard Curtis land here; a safe haven where everyone is rich, beautiful, witty/kooky, endearing and likeable. While Curtis' films (Four Weddings, Notting Hill, Love Actually, Bridget Jones) have a certain likeability despite themselves, Imagine Me And You is simply a rip-off - and a bad one at that. Despite the twist on the content, the movie is as straight as a die, never attempting to up the ante on its contemporaries and you'll be bored long before it crashes into its inevitable, bland ending. And if you are expecting a sexy, red-hot love scene between two lipstick lesbians, you'll be sorely disappointed.

Review by Gavin Burke