Every so often, there's a pleasant surprise hiding inside an unpromising package. Case in point: ``Kissing A Fool,'' which comes with a laundry list of turn-offs attached to it.
First off, it was directed and co-written by Doug Ellin, whose previous film, the excruciating ``Phat Beach,'' was almost as offensive as a minstrel show. Second, it stars David Schwimmer of TV's ``Friends,'' who didn't exactly set the screen aflame in ``The Pallbearer.'' Finally, there's that awful title, which calls to mind George Michael's gooey ballad of the same name.
But ``Fool'' succeeds both as a look at the competitiveness lurking underneath many friendships and as an offbeat romantic comedy that allows Schwimmer to convincingly play against type. One of the handicaps of ``Pallbearer'' was Schwimmer's by-the-numbers performance in a role almost identical to his milquetoast Ross on ``Friends.''
``Fool'' is something else entirely, as Schwimmer plays Max Abbitt, an egomaniacal Chicago sportscaster who greets everyone with a cheerful ``Wuttup?'' and who'd be obnoxious if he weren't so ridiculous.
Max is blissfully hedonistic until his considerably more sensitive best friend Jay (Jason Lee, who has few equals when it comes to finding humor in misery) introduces him to book editor Sam (Mili Avital). Following what Jay terms a three-week ``Love Boat'' episode, Max and Sam are engaged and living together.
Still nursing a heart shattered by his would-be supermodel ex-girlfriend Natasha (Vanessa Angel), Jay tries to be happy for his friend, with only semi-convincing results.
Starting off as an acidic look at love, ``Fool'' begins as a variation on ``Chasing Amy,'' which also cast Lee as the guy on the outside of an affair and which sported the same sort of slightly grainy/gritty look Ellin has given this film.
But by its midpoint the movie has somehow reinvented itself as a quirky romance that recalls, of all things, ``Moonstruck,'' with Lee as Nicolas Cage, Avital as Cher and Schwimmer as Danny Aiello. ``Fool'' also incorporates various other colorful characters, including Sam's bratty cousin (Judy Greer), Max's libidinous co-worker (Kari Wuhrer) and the much-discussed Natasha, who shows up late in the game to declare ``I go by Nastassia now'' and to try to reignite Jay's torch.
Author John Patrick Shanley graced ``Moonstruck'' with a magnificent finale that untangled all its plot threads in one astonishing, hilarious sequence. Ellin isn't a gifted enough writer to come up with that kind of climax to his story, so ``Fool'' wheezes to a stop rather than wrapping up with any real punch.
But that doesn't negate the considerable charms of Avital, Lee and Schwimmer or the frequent bursts of wit in Ellin's script, several of which deal with Jay's sappy taste in music. When Max chides him for wallowing in self-pity while listening to Barry Manilow albums, Jay protests he wasn't playing Manilow discs: ``That was a radio special!'' he insists.
James Sanford
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