Always in danger of becoming just another meet-cute, mess-things-up-by-being-neurotic, get-it-all-together-in-the-end romance about attractive, witty people, this modest picture is distinguished by some marvelously bitchy dialogue. After an awkward opening, in which the two leads begin recounting the story of their grand romance to strangers — an AA acquaintance and a clinic receptionist (veteran actress Doris Roberts) — the movie finds its groove. Closet romantic Eli (writer Dan Bucatinsky, who adapted the script from his own play) believes that, all his past disappointing relationships notwithstanding, somewhere there's a perfect guy waiting for him. Macho Tom (Richard Ruccolo, of TV's Two Guys and a Girl) thinks love stinks. Their best friends, Brett (Adam Goldberg, veteran of several short-lived TV series) and Jackie (Sasha Alexander, of TV's Dawson's Creek), fix them up on a disastrous first date, but fate conspires to throw them together, and they begin dating. The course of their true love most emphatically does not run smooth: Eli's reliance on psychobabble and high-strung touchy-feelie-ness — the legacy of growing up with not one, but two hipster therapists for parents (Andrea Martin, Tony Abatemarco) — drives Tom crazy. Tom's two-fisted drinking and cavalier dismissal of romance — probably needless to say, his alcoholic parents (Joanna Kerns, Nicholas Surovy) had a hellish marriage — make Eli feel insecure and confused. Meanwhile, Brett and Jackie, who met cute in a furniture store and hooked up their best friends as an excuse to get together themselves — are happily ensconced in blissful coupledom: How can it be so easy for them and so difficult for Tom and Eli? The film started out as I Know What You Are, But What Am I?, a one-act play about a straight couple (Bucatinsky and Nicole Tocantins, who has a minor role in the film version) and their commitment-phobic mating dance; Bucatinsky pulled a gender switch when he adapted the story for the screen. The film's executive producer is Don Roos (THE OPPOSITE OF SEX, in which Bucantinsky had a supporting role), and OPPOSITE stars Lisa Kudrow and Christina Ricci make cameo appearances here as, respectively, a voice-over artist and Eli's sister. --Maitland McDonagh
