Reviewed by Doug Cooper
Stars Sandra Bullock, Thomas Haden Church, Bradley Cooper, Ken Jeong, DJ Qualls, Howard Hesseman, Keith David, Beth Grant, Katy Mixon, Jason Jones, Holmes Osbourne
Written by Kim Barker
Certification UK 12A | US PG-13
Runtime 101 minutes
Directed by Phil Traill
Sandra Bullock proved a colossus at the US box office last year, with hits The Proposal and The Blind Side. Sandwiched between them came this sorry so-called comedy that quickly died on its cinema run. No surprise there – it's appalling.
The rom-com star plays Mary Magdalene Horowitz, a cruciverbalist (compiler of crossword puzzles) who lives with her parents while her home is being fumigated and has no life outside her job at the newspaper she works for. Her parents set her up on a blind date with dishy CCN cameraman Cooper. With barely any conversation she practically rapes him on the front seat of his car such is her energetic ardour. Cooper hightails it away from this fruitcake but she then follows him to the various news events he has to cover, such as a hospital drama involving a three-legged child, a hurricane in Texas, and then a group of deaf children who have fallen down a deep mine shaft.
News presenter Church, an overconfidernt egotistical reporter desperate to be a TV anchor, encourages the poor woman to keep up her stalkerish tendencies in pursuing the cameraman, constantly stirring up trouble for his colleague. The chief problem with this awful effort is not only the dreadful script, which includes occasional stomach-churning narration from the lead, nor the mind-numbing lack of logic it imparts. It's Bullock's character. Though she's incredibly bright, her behaviour dictates that she should be institutionalised. No sane person would ever want to go out with her. Kookiness can be charming and funny, but performed to such extremes here it's simply tragic.
And remember Lucy Davis from the UK version of The Office? She played Dawn. She crops up here briefly on a pyschiatric couch. She must count herself lucky that she's on screen for no more than 10 seconds. This miscalculated opus should be avoided at all costs. It's trite, sentimental and embarrassing. Absolute garbage.