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Down to You Customer Reviews (4 - 6 of 23 Reviews)

Prinze & Stiles deserve better than too cute romantic comedy
"Down to You" is a romantic comedy that insists on substituting style for substance at key moments in the proceedings. It wants to take a cute approach to a serious relationship, as Al (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) and Imogen (Julia Stiles) do a retroactive post mortem on their relationship. The problem, as they both confide to the audience, is that they were too young when they met each other, implying that if only the timing was right the relationship would be right. The tagline for this film was "A new comedy about giving first love a second chance," which goes beyond the boundaries of either description or foreshadowing enough to warrant losing a star on the rating on that basis alone.

Al and Imogen meet at a bar and click immediately, which seems to be more of a surprise to him than to her. She has sworn off dating so can enjoy her college experience, but she is not about to let a rule make her pass on Al who she considers to be cute. He has some strange dorm friends (Selma Blair, Shawn Hatosy, Zak Orth and Rosario Dawson) who want him to swear off on Imogen, but he manages to ignore them most of the time. Meanwhile, the damage caused by his famous chef father (Henry Winkler in a nice turn, with Lucy Arnaz as his wife) does not seem to be too bad since he has the family cooking gene, but we have to wait a long time in this movie for him to grow up enough to be almost good enough for her.

Director-writer Kris Isacsson has two personable performers but never really does right by them. She is the more serious of the pair (it will be a long time before Stiles is ever the flighty one in a romantic comedy; it takes a Jason Bourne to get her to back down in a film), and he never really succeeds in bridging the gap to the point where we believe these two have a real chance. Al is just not in her league. The problem is that ultimately this is not a cute film about a serious relationship but a cute film about a cute relationship, and that can be fraught with danger, especially when songs get used to cover up the problems. When the character of Monk in this film becomes the voice of reason, you know the train has left the tracks.


Winkler was the good part
If you must watch this film, watch it for Winkler, who gives an interesting preview of his future role in "Arrested Development". Watching this movie for "Prinz" and "Stiles" is counterproductive. Not only have the actors "failed to make the best" of the script, the script was written from the viewpoint of the super-rich Hollywood elite who live lives with zero financial consequences. Thus, we watch as young adults walk out on culinary school, muse about becoming "singer-songwriters", and "stop paying attention" to their college plans. Much like the "Friends" genre that this movie shamelessly imitates, this is a "time porn" piece, where the characters have little else to do besides "mature romantically" and "find themselves". A movie for history's circular file.

A Teenage "Annie Hall"
First of all I'm guessing a lot of teens have no idea what my heading means. "Annie Hall" is a Woody Allen film that was made in 1977 and won the "Best Picture" Oscar that year. It was a romantic comedy about a man (Allen) shifting through certain moments of his relationship with Annie Hall (Diane Keaton). They used flashbacks,fast fowards, and even animation! Kris Isacsson this film's director is so clearly not only a fan of "Annie Hall", but HAS to be a Woody Allen fan as well. There's no other way one could explain this film. It's the same thing only done with a teen twist to it. Both films take place one year after their relationships fell through. Both use flashbacks, fast fowards, and the characters are able to comment on past experinces as we (the viewer) watch the scene happen. This was used in "Annie Hall" as well. This movie is about Freddie Prince Jr. trying to figure out what went wrong with his relationship. In the first 45 minutes I liked what I saw. I thought Julia Stiles and Freddie made a good couple. It was a "cute" movie showing teen love. After about an hour the movie now tries to become this profound movie about love. Give me a break! The ideas in this movie are mindless. It's a pretenious showing of the hardships of teen love. Awwww, stop, my heart is breaking here! If you really want to watch a great romantic comedy I suggest watching "Annie Hall". It's the quintessential romantic comedy of all time. And if you don't believe me watch it and see. You'll noticed almost all romantic comedies made after that movie owe something to it. ** 1\2 out of *****

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