Addicted to love A movie review by Monika Huebner Copyright 1997 Monika Huebner
Director: Griffin Dunne Cast: Meg Ryan, Matthew Broderick, Kelly Preston, Tchéky Karyo
Sam (Matthew Broderick) is an astronomer in a small American town and engaged to teacher Linda (Kelly Preston). He is head over heels in love and Lindas sudden departure to New York City to live with her new lover Anton (Tchéky Karyo) comes as a complete surprise to him.
But as we all know love is blind and so Sam leaves for New York as well to win her back. He moves into an abandoned house across the street from Anton's apartment and installs a camera obscura to watch them. Suddenly Anton's ex Maggie shows up, but she does not want her former lover back. On the contrary, all she wants to do is vaporize him. She may say that she doesn't want to kill him, but the possibility doesn't bother her too much either. After all, people die every day.
In spite of their different motives the two team up and fall for each other as things move on. The story sounds like something we all have seen a million times. But we haven't. Griffin Dunne brings us the most charming comedy since "While you where sleeping". The camera obscura adds a "special something" to the movie and makes it an exceptional romantic comedy.
Everything about the movie is perfect, from set design to casting. The dialogues are inspired and the touches of black humor add a certain bite.
Meg Ryan, known from "When Harry met Sally" or "Sleepless in Seattle", surprises in a role that may finally help her get rid of her sweet little girl image. She impresses the viewer as a maneating biker girl. Even more surprising is the fact that the viewer believes her, much more so than in last years "Courage under Fire" where she played a Gulf war pilot.
Matthew Broderick is the goodnatured and somewhat naive Sam who has trouble accepting reality. The viewer can tell that he doesn't only watch the stars but also tries to reach out for them. He has trouble keeping in touch with reality. After all, who would leave everything behind to chase a lost love? His naiveté that we don't question for a minute throughout the movie clashes with Maggies exaggerated wish for revenge. She would do anything to harm Anton. She doesn't hesitate to use Sam for her plan and makes him understand right from the beginning that nothing will happen between the two of them. That makes the scenes when they innocently share a bed, have potatoe chips and watch the action across the street like a saturday night show on TV even funnier.
Tchéky Karyo is perfect as Anton. He is, well, repulsive. That's all there is to say about him. You can't really manage to pity him, even after all his mishaps. He not only took Sam's bride away from him, he is also a French chef. Worlds collide, i. e. the USA and France. This can only go wrong. Even if Maggies revenge schemes are at times shocking, you just can't sympathize with a man who plays "Je t'aime...moi non plus" on his tape deck. Not everyone is captured by the French charme that Linda and even Maggie fell for. Sam certainly isn't. Too bad for Anton. For him things take a turn to the worse.
"Addicted to Love" is one of this year's most pleasant surprises.
Rating: **** out of ****
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