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The Trouble With Men + Women

2003, Movie, NR, 74 mins

The Trouble With Men + Women : Review

TROUBLE WITH MEN + WOMEN, THE
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The title of this charming, if slight, Venus-and-Mars romantic comedy from UK director Tony Fisher pretty much says it all: Despite romantic illusions to the contrary, the trouble with men and women is that they're inevitably going to be two different people between whom a romantic match is never going to be easy. After six years of what Matt (Joseph McFadden) thought was a good relationship, his pragmatic girlfriend Deborah (Neve McIntosh) takes off for New York, telling him that he's made things too easy and that his inability to challenge her stopped her from being her. Crushed, Matt tries to follow the advice of his well-meaning friends and starts hitting the bars and making the rounds of parties, but it's a half-hearted attempt at best; Matt still refuses to give up on the notion of romantic love. To Matt, it appears that his best friend Vinnie (Matthew Delamere) has found the perfect woman in Susie (Kate Ashfield) — she's smart and awfully cute — but Vinnie claims to have found the truth of Freud's dictum that that "man cannot desire what he loves, nor loves what he desires" and is feeling more fizzle than sizzle when it comes to sex. Vinnie, who seems to have a paradoxical rational to justify all his bad behavior, is contemplating curing his current state of sexual dissatisfaction with Susie by cheating on her. When Vinnie asks Matt to accompany Susie to a museum exhibition, Matt begins to grow increasingly close to his best friend's girlfriend; when Susie finally asks Vinnie whether or not he loves her and doesn't get the answer she'd most like to hear, she turns to Matt for consolation — and more. Fisher's characters often turn to the likes of Voltaire to make their point about the ways of the heart and the world, but it's smart enough on its own terms. It's sweet and well done, and carries a slight air of the nouvelle vague. The details of the singles scene are rendered with a depressing accuracy that's probably gained from experience: A dull party thrown by a poseur named Derek looks and feels exactly like you'd expect a dull party thrown by a poseur to look and feel. McFadden, meanwhile, is a likeable sort with enough wide-eyed, hurt puppy charm that you can't help but root for the poor bugger. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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