Catch and Release 2006 Directed By: Susannah Grant Cast: Jennifer Garner, Timothy Olyphant, Sam Jaeger, Kevin Smith, Juliette Lewis

Written by: Ricardo Barberini May 25, 2007

This qualifies as yet another childish movie with a predictable story line.  I saw this movie while traveling in Europe.  I was bored and had nothing else to do. I am sorry that I did.

Jennifer Garner plays Gray, a young girl who has lost her fiancé on the eve of their wedding day. 

Luckily for her she has several friends she can rely on.  One is a fat slob, Sam played by Kevin Smith, who is constantly eating and boozing.  Then there is Dennis (Sam Jaeger), a nice guy who has had a secret crush on her for the last six years. Then there is Fritz (Timothy Olyphant), a seedy character who was her fiancé’s best friend.  The guy is so slimy that he has sex with a girl during the funeral in, of all the places, Gray’s bathroom while Gray is hiding behind the shower curtain.

She soon discovers that her dead fiancé was a very rich man and was secretly supporting a secret son by a masseuse, Maureen played by Juliette Lewis.  Initially, she hates her dead fiancé for cheating on her and shuns the girl friend.  That is until she meets the little boy who maybe autistic and feels sorry for him and tries to have him declared the legitimate heir of her fiancé.  She also comes to term with her own sexuality by admitting that she had a relationship with another girl.

Along the way, she sleeps with the sleazy Fritz and falls in love with him because he is so bad!  In the end, the young boy gets the money, even though DNA tests prove that he was not really the dead fiancé’s offspring, Dennis the nice guy moves out, Gray moves in with Fritz and Maureen the masseuse moves in with the sloppy messy Sam. 

Hollywood pays money for some strange movies. This was another one with no real plot.   There was no real acting in this movie other than by Juliette Lewis as what I’d call a near-whore with a heart of gold.  Susannah Grant wrote and directed this piece of trash.

The movie has strong sexual content.  I was surprised that they actually showed it on the plane.

We will give it only   Avoid!