Worth Winning
In this charming romantic comedy, a TV weatherman (Mark Harmon) whose life is an endless succession of whirlwind affairs, takes his male friends up on a bet. He sets out to prove he can get simultaneously engaged to three beautiful women (Madeleine Stowe, Maria Holvoe, Lesley Ann Warren), all within three months. But the joke backfires when he realizes he has actually fallen in love with one of his "fiancées" - and she suddenly wants nothing to do with him.
Member Reviews
Let the mouse Olympics begin! - luminol
The set-up? Insanely handsome Philadelphia weatherman and bachelor about town Taylor Worth (Mark Harmon) makes a very politically incorrect wager with his friends. It begins with a really interesting premise: Heartbreak and loss is good for the soul. It makes one stronger---this is a comedy after all. Taylor is too charming, too handsome, and he knows it; what he really needs a woman to rip out his heart and stomp all over it. But the film abandons this premise almost immediately.
Will Mackenzie's a fairly prolific director of TV sitcoms, if you watched a comedy in the last 25 years, you've seen something he directed. This was his only foray onto the big screen, so there's a heavy use of the conventions and requirements of TV without the compressed reflection of a major motion picture.
Nitpicking? The bet could have had more depth. His three best friends are all middle-aged family men and all their free time together is spent in various forms of gambling. They stand with their faces pressed to the candy store of Taylor's life, envious of the endless bevy of beauties; so the bet has an imperceptible undercurrent of malice and revenge to it. Plus Taylor takes the bet just to rub his best friend's nose in it.
Although the film has lots of potential, it doesn't really succeed because of it's timidity. His misogyny is cleverly hidden by his winning ways and that dazzling smile which is only briefly suggested in a scene with a fellow news anchor (Emily Kurada---Mrs Kim on the Gilmore Girls) she bears the stinging contempt of someone beneath his attentions. If his friend truly wanted to throw him a curve ball, she should have been the much better ringer.
Worth a couple of light chuckles. I'd give this 2 stars, but the succulent and saucy Madeleine Stowe elevates this by acting circles around everybody else in the film.
Member Reviews
Read All...
Let the mouse Olympics begin! - luminol
The set-up? Insanely handsome Philadelphia weatherman and bachelor about town Taylor Worth (Mark Harmon) makes a very politically incorrect wager with his friends. It begins with a really interesting premise: Heartbreak and loss is good for the soul. It makes ...