Imagine Me & You

Imagine Me & You (Ol Parker, 2006) [5]
On the introduction to this site I mentioned that most of these reviews were of films I see from Netflix and that I rarely go to a theatre (for numerous reasons; look it up). Well, I actually went to a theatre and an hour away in Syracuse no less. I drove seventy miles into lake effect snow for a promotional screening of a film that I know will never get played in Binghamton. The only reason I went to see this (besides it was free) was that Piper Perabo was in it. I think she’s a much underrated actress who was fantastic in Lost & Delirious. This film also deals with a same-sex relationship as that one did. Besides gender, there’s nothing in this film that makes it any different from a heterosexual romantic comedy. I tend to feel that the romantic comedy genre has been exhausted and that there are very few films that do anything to break out of that tired formula. This film is just another British romantic comedy with the bumbling Hugh Grant-esqe male lead, a horndog male friend, and intrusive parents. But for whatever reason, probably the spell Piper Perabo has cast on me, I actually enjoyed this film. The relationship between Perabo and Lena Headey was well done. It wasn’t too overwrought with drama but they made it seem as believable as a film can be. This film has enough emotional strength in its dramatic scenes to make the comedic elements, which I feel were overdone, tolerable. While I did enjoy this, I can’t give it any higher than a five because it doesn’t do anything different yet interesting to the genre. And will somebody please give Piper Perabo a role with some real substance and recognition.