2007, d. Amy Heckerling (Clueless)
The film has two montages in the first four minutes, one of which is narrated by a spirit guide of some sort (who pops up continually throughout the film) creating an improbable through line from Baby Boomer consumerism to plastic surgery... an ominous start for what's to come: lack of subtlety.
Paul Rudd as the romantic younger lead goes aggressively big throughout... they make it a plot point but it's always too much, too much to be charming, or even attractive. I don't buy that Michelle Pfeiffer finds it anywhere near as endearing as we're supposed to believe she does. From moment one when she's sitting in on his casting call, she's biting her lip and really keyed into Rudd's borderline inappropriate, largely inane shenanigans.
Pfeiffer and Saorise Ronan (in her first film) make a pretty great mother-daughter duo, and the only really sharp laughs come out of that pairing. Ronan is fantastic, just a straight-out-the-box star. Comedic stunt casting in the form of Tracey Ullman, Fred Willard, Graham Norton, David Mitchell, Wallace Shaun, and an invisible Olivia Colman pay no dividends. There's not a lot of com in this romcom, and there's really not a lot of rom either. Such a waste of Rudd and Pfeiffer.
It would seem Heckerling really wanted to work though Hollywood ageism, the hypocrisy of the lack of acceptance for the older women-younger men dynamic, and parsing through her (possibly problematic) relationship with the much younger Chris Kattan (a relationship that he said he was pressured into). But there's somehow no real insight into any of these, it's all surface level observations and trite ones at that. Heckerling seemed much more in tune with talking about parenting, but it's such a nominal part of this overall film.
This film features cat fights, body shaming, and teaching girls how to not be themselves to impress boys. Bleh. Messy. I could never recommend I Could Never Be Your Woman.
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