A new comedy about narrowing it down to the one you love.
Grinning Muppet Freddie Prinze Jr. romances miserable cow Julia Stiles in Kris 'never going to work again' Isacsson's soppy melodrama 'Down To You'. After the success of 'She"s All That' (1999), 'Miramax' all but shelved its exclusive commitment to cutting edge drama (remember Jason Mewes's 'She"s All That' gag in 'Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back'?) and paired pretty boy Prinze Jr. with Stiles in a deceptively decent premise about twentysomethings finding & losing true love. Now I quite liked Julia Stiles in 'Hamlet', 'O' and the 'Bourne' movies, but she's got to be one of the most expressionless actresses around. 'Ten Things I Hate About You'? well, one of them was that movie Stiles, for her weepy classroom speech almost made me wish 'Elephant' was going on in the other room, and that any minute now, some American teen psychos in trench-coats would burst in brandishing semi-automatics just to liven things up. Meanwhile, Freddie's two expressions (i.e. deer-in-headlights and side smile) ensure Al & Imogen make for an odd onscreen couple, though to be fair, Issacson's script has the germ of a good idea; its just his execution and penchant for cringe worthy clichés that makes 'Down To You' a chore to watch. Now the romantic comedy / melodrama was going strong in the late nineties; I'll even admit to having a soft spot for Julia Roberts and Richard Gere's sweet reunion flick 'Runaway Bride', though Jr's wife-to-be; Sarah Michelle Geller, pretty much killed the genre with the ironically repulsive; 'Simply Irresistible', some roobarb about Sarah Michelle Geller and crabs (the aquatic life form, not the STD). 'Down To You' employs a lot of direct-to-camera scenes which are handled quite well, though these cats don't so much break the forth wall, as knock it down with a wrecking ball, climb out of the crane jump into the rubble go berserk with a sledgehammer; now having characters deliver soliloquies is fine, but here its done so often that you occasionally wish they'd just leave you alone and get back to their movie. Al & Imogen work through the usual relationship dilemmas, Freddie Prinze swigs shampoo after the breakup because if he can get over shampoo; then he can get over Julia Stiles, yes, its that kinda movie, the sort of film which brings back memories of Ross & Rachel's misjudged break up episode from 'Friends', I think it was called 'The One Where Schwimmer & Anniston Fail Miserably In A Joint Effort To Convince As Dramatic Actors'. Ashton Kutcher, in the days before he lost his car or married a pensioner, plays someone called Jim Morrison (a misnomer if ever there was one), 'She's All That' co-star and perennial teen movie actress Selma Blair also crops up whilst old school favourites Lucie Arnaz and Henry 'The Fonz' Winkler (who appeared to be making a late 90s comeback after 'The Waterboy') are on hand as Al's parents. Freddie Prinze Jr. fluctuates between side smile, deer-in-headlights and, for variety's sake; side smile, singlehandedly making a case as to why he shouldn't work in movies anymore, by killing Issacson's one and only golden goose; fumbling the potentinally promising, surreal satirical interlude about emasculation, entitled 'The Man Show'. Freddie Prinze Jr...why? But of course its all changed now...for in the years since I resigned my membership as chief propagandist of the 'Freddie Prinze Jr. Haters Society' (now under new management as the 'Ashton Kutcher Sucks Balls Club') I saw him on stage in Kenneth Lonergan's excellent play 'This Is Our Youth'. 'American Pie's' resident bozo Chris Klein was also treading the boards that night, great, I thought; two idiots for the price of one, why didn't I see this when Matt Damon & Casey Affleck were in it? But much to my initial dismay, and eventual begrudging appreciation: Freddie Prinze Jr. could actually act! He'd been holding out on us all these years with fluff like 'Wing Commander' and 'Summer Catch', when in fact Prinze Jr. wasn't nearly as bad an actor as he'd led a generation to believe. Talking to him backstage, I respectfully chose not to warn Freddie (who, to make matters worse, is a stand up guy) off making any more rubbish films, alas, my lack of inventionalist spirit may've played some part in Prinze Jr. accepting a recurring role as Fred, in the abysmal adaption of 'Scooby Doo', its unspeakable follow up 'Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed' and a very real threat of another sequel on the horizon. 'Down To You' is an unremarkable date movie which could've been good had all involved injected a modicum of creativity into the proceedings, for at least 'She's All That' could always fall back on Sixpence None The Richer's intensely annoying, irritatingly catchy song: 'Kiss Me', 'Down To You' doesn't even have that. Feckless young lovers may enjoy it, cynical misanthropes not so much. Down and out.
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Freddie Prinze Jr. ('She's All That') and Julia Stiles ('Ten Things I Hate About You'), the King and Queen of Teen, team up in this romantic comedy about student life. It's love at first sight for Al (Prinze) and Imogen (Stiles) when they meet at a bar in New York City and the pair are soon involved in a relationship. But with all the temptations around them - parties, drugs, other partners - their future as a couple looks less than secure.
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