Catch and Release [Blu-ray] [2007] [US Import] [2006]

A romantic comedy: yes - with modifications. "Catch and release" is not your average romantic comedy with a simple plot, that is so generic that you hardly remember the movie afterwards. This movie has a twist, that makes it worth not only a Sunday afternoon on the couch but another look.

The right people find eachother in the end - no surprise there, but "Catch and release" has an original take on the romantic comedy. Gray has lost her fiancée and is thrown into the practical problems this ensues. She can't offord the house they were moving in to together and ends up in a house with three of her late fiancée's friends.

What raises this movie above the generic romantic comedy is the real feel it has. The characters aren't complete strangers who walk down the sidewalk and suddenly can't their eyes off each other. The characters in "Catch and release" haven't really chosen each other, Gray's late fiancée and a dash of circumstance bring them together.

Furthermore, the characters are very rounded, lovable and despisable at the same time. The entire cast really encapsules that fact. Great movie!

Louise.

I cried at the end and I didn't want the movie to end at all. So it's good. I had some doubts at the beginning with some awkward dialogue. I wish video quality was a little better. It seems in an effort to clean up grain detail has also been eradicated.

Let me just start off by saying that this is the first review I have ever written on Amazon. What led me to make this change in my behaviour is simply the fact that after watching Catch and Release on Sky this week for the first time, I was so incensed by the sheer lack of praise for this truly wonderful film that I could not hold myself back.

I had not even heard of this film until a few months ago and certainly don't remember it being on at the cinema. After reading the bad reviews and criticisms aplenty directed at Catch and Release I watched it not expecting to like it but boy was I wrong.

Firstly, I can only imagine that this film was seriously under marketed, probably wrongly as a romantic comedy. It is not a romantic comedy. It is a lot of things with a little dash of humour in which makes you smile to yourself at times but IT IS NOT A COMEDY!

Remember Tremors, a cult classic? No one had even heard of that when it came out originally - sadly another undermarketed/mis-marketed film - but now it's huge and has spawned 2 sequels and a TV series!

Sadly, I fear that people expected this film to be different than it is. That simple misconception could well have been its downfall.

Has the general public become so numbed by films with massive explosions, copious amounts of violence and incessant swearing that we can no longer enjoy touching, emotional films like this one? Or is it that we are so used to the same old `rom-coms' that Hugh Grant and the like spew out year after year that we are scared to appreciate something with a different feel to it?

To put it simply this film is beautiful. It's moving, sad, romantic, painful, sweet, good natured and humorous at times and in the end it teaches us that there is hope. We eventually learn that life does indeed go on after the death of a loved one.

The film begins with a tragic funeral which we never really forget throughout the film, even though there is so much else to consider. The director manages the impossible - to create a heart-warming, tender film even in the presence of such sadness - and she pulls it off completely. In the hands of someone else it could have been such a mess but it isn't - it's simply brilliant. I only wish there were more films like this that didn't feel the need to blow everything up or beat the living snot out of the characters to gain an audience.

All the actors, especially of course the fantastic Jennifer Garner and Timothy Olyphant, play their parts perfectly. The chemistry between the two main characters is palpable and really adds to the charm. These two actors have that rare knack of being able to portray a barrage of emotions perfectly just with their facial expressions and body language - a talent that many other actors lack. You know exactly what they are feeling and thinking without them saying a word and it hits you hard. The scene in the fishing hut, in the peace garden, is a prime example of this.

This film moved me greatly. It may sound harsh but seriously, you could only not enjoy this film if your heart is a shrivelled up prune and you have never known the feelings of loss, love, hope and the oh so heart breaking one of unrequited love.

It just makes me so sad that this film wasn't the hit it should have been and only hope that the writers, producers and director of Catch and Release know that there are some of us out there that loved it and hope for more like it.