FOOLS RUSH IN
A film review by Chad Polenz
Copyright 1997 Chad Polenz
** (out of 4 = fair) 1997, PG-13, 108 minutes [1 hour, 48 minutes] [romantic comedy] starring: Matthew Perry (Alex), Selma Hayek (Isabel), Jon Tenney (Jeff), written by Katherine Reback, Joan Taylor, produced by Doug Draizin, directed by Andy Tennant.
As good as Hollywood is at making movies and television programs, when they combine the two it never works. "Fools Rush In" is a mediocre romantic comedy that acts like a 2-hour sitcom, complete with predictable jokes, zany overacting, and gags that don't work.
Matthew Perry stars as Alex Whitman, an architect from New York who is transferred to Las Vegas for a "temporary" project. I think Perry is the funniest cast member on "Friends" but this film proves he is only capable of playing one character - young yuppie slackers who spew forth wisecracks and one-liners at every given opportunity. Sometimes characters like these can be funny, but Perry's performance is so dry and the script is so shallow we never get a sense of his character.
And then there is Selma Hayek as Isabel Fuentes, a sexy Mexican-American straight of the stereotype vaults. She claims to be a devout Catholic but is quite a hypocrite; one minute she is swimming in sin (premarital sex, drinking, etc), and the next she is wrapped in charity and tradition (going to church, confession, family gatherings). She believes fate controls every action of life, and when she meets Alex, she says destiny brought them together and it appears as if she is about to marry him. Justification for love through fate is one of the worst cop-outs, films like this use it to make up for lack of chemistry.
Alex and Isabel have a one-night stand only to meet three months later and find out she's pregnant with his child. Then there is the awkward moment, the fighting, the chase scene, and finally the realization they're perfect for each other. If this wasn't predictable enough, there is even a fish-out-of-water scene as Isabel drags Alex to her weekly family gathering, saying he is her boyfriend of two months (which makes no sense because if she sees her family every week, wouldn't the boyfriend issue have come up already?).
For some strange reason the two decide they are in love and get married at a typical Vegas chapel, and now they can finally be together and get to know each other. This idea of a reverse romance story is pretty creative, but the film doesn't know how to use it in any original manner at all.
The final act really lost me, it makes the mistake (nearly all romantic comedies make) of splitting the lovers up and concentrating more on drama than comedy. But these two are so incompatible, so selfish, and so shallow, it's hard to care if they make up or not. Of course we get the Cinderella-type ending and everything's just peachy by the closing credits.
"Fools Rush In" seems like a date movie for the sake of making a date movie, and therefore all the jokes and plot devices are plugged in. It had a lot of good ideas, but it's just too much of a drawn out sit-com to be taken seriously.
(2/28/97) (6/13/97) [see also: "Singles"]
please visit Chad'z Movie page @ http://members.aol.com/ChadPolenz/index.html
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