CATCH AND RELEASE

I caught the ending of this movie one day. And then, a couple of weeks later, I caught the beginning, and of course, had to sit through the whole thing. Both times I kept thinking...who is that guy?...he looks familiar. I'm not even sure I've seen him before, but he looks like someone... who? The guy I was wondering about was Timothy Olyphant, who plays "Fritz" in CATCH AND RELEASE. (It finally hit me that he looks like a young Lorenzo Lamas) When I looked him up, I realized that I'd seen him before in LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD. Quite a different role in that movie - he plays the bad guy. So in DIE HARD, I hated him. But in CATCH AND RELEASE? Loved him!

Jennifer Garner plays "Gray", a young woman who's fiance, "Grady", has suddenly died. After his death, she temporarily moves in with his buddies since she cant afford her place anymore. Together they mourn and help Gray get through her loss. First she mourns the loss of the man she loved. Then she mourns the loss of the man she thought he was, because Gray soon discovers that she didn't know everything about Grady. Like, he had a child that he'd been supporting for a few years. And this child has existed for less time than Gray and Grady had been together. The "other woman", "Maureen", played by Juliette Lewis said, "I'm sorry. You could've just missed him and loved him and not known". To which Gray answers "Not known him".

Kevin Smith plays Sam, the funny sarcastic guy; Olyphant is Fritz, the playboy; and Sam Jaeger is the responsible guy, "Dennis". They are all likeable guys - but Dennis - hate to say it - was totally unnecessary to the story. The other characters' stories go somewhere by the end of the movie. But Dennis is just there. It would have been the exact same movie without him.

But all in all, this is actually a sweet love story of Gray and the man she is finally drawn to as she comes out of her mourning. It's probably predictable, and most probably a date flick. But CATCH AND RELEASE is also sad, funny, and romantic.