The Object of My Affection (1998) 2 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Jennifer Aniston, Paul Rudd, Tim Daly and Nigel Hawthorne.
The Object of My Affection is not a simple boy-girl love story.
It's actually a boy-boy, boy-girl, boy-boy, boy-girl love story.
George (Paul Rudd), a teacher, learns at a dinner party thrown by the parents of one of his young pupils that he is about to be dumped by his lover, Robert (Tim Daly).
To atone for her faux paus, Nina (Jennifer Aniston) offers George the spare bedroom in her Brooklyn apartment.
Nina, a social worker, is dating Vince (John Pankow, cousin Ira on Mad About You), a civil liberties lawyer, who tries to run her life.
When Nina discovers she is pregnant by Vince, she decides she would rather have George help her raise the child than Vince. Nina and George fall in love with each other, but their relationship remains platonic.
They have an "understanding." If Nina - or George - finds another man, they are free to bring him to the apartment. But, since they are so happy together, neither is looking.
That is, until George meets Paul, who is involved with an older man, Rodney, who ...
All right, already. You get the idea.
The Object of My Affection, with a Wendy Wasserstein screenplay based on a novel by Stephen McCauley, works as an odd sort of romantic comedy. And that's strange, because most of the main characters, especially George and Nina, are basically self-centered individuals who leave broken hearts strewn all over New York and Brooklyn as they search for happiness.
They are not mean. They don't hurt others deliberately. Even if you can't respect them, you can like and even empathize with them.
Aniston is a lovely actress with a winning personality. Rudd exudes a sexual charisma. Their characters have frailties we can recognize in ourselves, which compensates for the movie's undercurrent of pain and makes the film a success.
This may seem an odd project for director Nicholas Hytner, whose previous credits were the costume dramas The Madness of King George and the screen adaptation of Arthur Miller's The Crucible.
Hytner allows the audience to get to know the various characters, which include Nigel Hawthorne in the small but dignified role of Paul's rejected older partner.
Considering all the hurt that people inflict on one another throughout the movie, The Object of My Affection is civilized. Maybe it needed more of an edge. Maybe George and Nina's self-absorption should have been emphasized more strongly. But it's difficult to get an audience to root for disagreable protagonists in a love story. Difficult, but not impossible.
The Object of My Affection is a crowd-pleasing movie. Perhaps Wasserstein and Hytner should not have worried about being so appealing. It may have made for a better movie.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or at cbloom@iquest.net
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