Melanie Parker - Michelle Pfeiffer Mel Parker and Jack Taylor and the two run-of-the-mill busy city folk. Mel is a single-parent and designer person at a company. She is a bit of a control freak, although she denies this on several occasions. She is having a 'perfectly bad day' (part of the tagline) until she meets Jack and her day is suddenly changed for the worse - then off course, the better. Michelle Pfeiffer plays the part of a stressed mother with a child very well. Not perfect but hey, is anybody perfect. This was my first film I have saw with her in it and was pleasantly surprised. I may have to go and see 'What Lies Beneath' now.
Jack Taylor - George Clooney Star of Entrapment (good film,) ER and Batman, George Clooney plays Jack Taylor. He is very young at heart guy who is also a single-parent. However, in his case, he is not the main bearer of his child's custody and only sees Sammy on rare occasions. This annoys him a lot but he carries on regardless enjoying life to the full. Mr. Clooney performs this role like he is not acting
at all. I am not an ER fan so do not know how similar the two characters are.
Maggie Taylor - Mae Whitman Maggie is Jack's daughter and a lover of cats; however, her mum is allergic to cats - this is presumably to make the viewer feel sorry for Maggie, just a little girl who cannot be with her playful dad and have a cat. She and Sam are both six years old in the film and although I'm not an expert on these things, are around six in real life. However, both are very good actor/resses and perfectly capable of running starring in a feature length film, after all Mae Whitman is in Johnny Bravo as the voice of Suzy - I'm reliably informed she talks quite a bit - so she is no stranger to fame.
Sammy Parker - Alex D. Linz Sammy/Sam is the potentially annoying little brat who drives Mel to despair. He is however, just a child so I'm very sorry Mr. Linz if you are reading this. He, also, has been in the entertainment industry for a while, most notably in Home Alone 3 as lead role, Alex. He is looking forward to a school trip out on a boat but that would make the film less interesting so he misses it. He is also looking forward to the final soccer match of the season in which he needs to play to get a medal.
Plot
I almost didn't watch this film, within the first ten minutes, the following phrase came up "will Dad be at my soccer match today, he promised, didn’t he" (or something like that.) A cliché of massive proportions, stress telephone time.
We first are introduced to the two people and their ex-partners. One is Mrs. Sensible, the other is Mr. Haven’t got a care in the world. One is rushing her son to the school field trip on a boat; the other is looking for the school. After a while of running around some crowded streets, Mel blames Jack for the two children missing the trip.
They arrange to mind each other's kids after a brief stay at a day care centre where the children are offered LSD. Mel goes and gets a new model made for her presentation after Sam broke it while Jack minds the children. After that, Mel is to mind the two children while Jack is at a press conference. A strange series of events occur, some are funny, some leave you wondering "was that supposed to be funny?"
The children are swapped between Mel and Jack who originally hate each other but that changes throughout the film. This child exchange gave the filmmakers a way of communication between the two. E.g. Hi Sam, what does Jack think of me; you're great. Etc… (Not a real quote.)
My Personal Opinion
This is not an amazing film but a good film to watch if you see it on TV or around a video shop. The acting is fair enough, the children are particularly good allowing for their young age.
It is a romantic comedy and does have some funny bits in it. For example; the part were Jack is talking to daughter, Maggie, that night. She is trying to sleep while Jack is eagerly talking to her about Mel. This is the complete opposite of what you would expect.
As the title suggest, it is set over one day from very early morning (I never knew that early existed) to late into the night.
The romance aspect is pretty lame, the same old story of woman meets man and immediately hates him. As time goes on, they have a love-hate relationship until it is all love. A tried and tested method, perhaps it has been tried and tested too many times.
I'm pretty sure that there will be plenty of people who will love this film and have it in top ten lists etc… but I think it is pretty medium.
It is a PG for occasional swearing and lasts 108 minutes. I saw the TV version and cannot say if there were any changes between this and the cinema/video version.
It's a very rare occasion when I watch a film more than once, hence that rating.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 1998 - Drama - Director: Martin Brest - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Marcia Gay Harden, Jake Weber, Claire Forlani, Jeffrey Tambor
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
i found this film very dissapointing film, and its a shame cos i like michelle p have you seen frankie and johnny now that is a good and sweet little film :) Jo
MRANDREWSJK 10.05.2002 15:14
Great op mate, haven't seen the film before !!
John
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