Down to You **
Rated on a 4-star scale Screening venue: Odeon (Liverpool City Centre) Released in the UK by Film Four on May 19, 2000; certificate 12; 92 minutes; country of origin USA; aspect ratio 1.85:1
Directed by Kris Isaacson; produced by Jason Kilot, Joana Vicente. Written by Kris Isaacson. Photographed by Robert Yeoman; edited by Stephen A. Rotter.
CAST..... Freddie Prinze Jr..... Al Connelly Julia Stiles..... Imogen Selma Blair..... Cyrus Shawn Hatosy..... Eddie Hicks Zak Orth..... Monk Jablonski Henry Winkler..... Ray
The characters in "Down to You" are stupid, all right, but at least they're more convincingly ALIVE than most young folks in American movies. These are college-age kids in a cutesy romantic comedy who screw, drink, smoke tobacco and pot, are familiar with music that came out before the invention of the CD, and have detailed discussions about pornography. None of this is presented as risque, as it was in "American Pie" -- it's seen as normal.
That's refreshing. The rest of the movie is pretty lame. Freddie Prinze Jr, from last summer's teen romance "She's All That", plays the guy, Al. Julia Stiles, from last summer's teen romance "10 Things I Hate About You", plays the girl, Imogen. They fall in love, break up, and fall in love again. The end.
The vices of the characters and texture of the atmosphere make "Down to You" watchable -- I know that kids from the USA aren't as hard-edged as youngsters from this side of the pond, but surely they can't be the bland, non-alcoholic virgins that most teen flicks make them out to be. The downside of the movie is the way it frames its story in retrospect, with embarrassing direct-to-camera interview-style dissections of what's going on onscreen, and a voice-over narration that treats a typical Hollywood love story as something Really Important. Woody Allen can get away with that, because his screenplays offer witty insights and entertaining self-obsession. Here it's gimmicky and annoying.
What I will remember about seeing the film is that the group of young girls in front of me thought I was Freddie Prinze Jr. Every time a close-up of the star filled the screen, one of them would turn around, make eye contact with me, then shoot round again, whispering "It's him, it's him!" to another. When his name appeared in the end credits, a couple of them said it to themselves, as if making a mental note. I dimmed the lights when I got home, and checked my reflection in the mirror, and yeah, I can sort of see a resemblance. Similar cheekbones, similar hair (on that day), et cetera. But I don't look like him all that much, really, and I hope the girls didn't see me in the light. I wouldn't want to spoil their illusion.
COPYRIGHT(c) 2000 Ian Waldron-Mantgani Please visit, and encourage others to visit, the UK Critic's website at http://members.aol.com/ukcritic
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews