Review by Jenny Priestley
Stars Catherine Zeta-Jones, Justin Bartha, Joanna Gleason, Art Garfunkel, Megan Byrne,
Lisa Gerber, Kelly Gould, Alice Playten, Rob Kerkovich, Sam Robards | Written by Bart Freundlich
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £17.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 95 minutes | Directed by Bart Freundlich
Newly single mother Sandy (Zeta-Jones) has the perfect family, lives in the perfect house and spends her days playing fantasy sports online – but then she discovers a video of her husband cheating on her and moves with her two kids to Manhattan (quite why she decides to leave her huge suburban house for a tiny NY apartment isn't really explained).
There she meets Aram (Bartha), who's also split from his wife – except she married him for a green card and he's much younger than Sandy. Through a serious of plot twists Sandy hires Aram to look after her kids while she works at a sports TV station and the two become friends, moving on to a more romantic relationship – but is it a relationship that can stand the test of time or are they both on the rebound?
This film is desperate to be a comedy - there's a whole skit where germ-obsessed Sandy has a disastrous date which sits uncomfortably with the rest of the tone of the film – but really it's more "meh" than laugh-out-loud funny.
Zeta-Jones is OK as Sandy, although I did particularly enjoy one character telling she never seems to get any older – but the best thing for me was Bartha as Aram You genuinely believe he does have feelings for Sandy, despite their age difference, her being his boss and his disapproving parents (played by the ever wonderful Gleason and Garfunkel!).
Writer/director Freundlich seems to struggle with tone in places and there's a far too long montage sequence towards the end. Maybe this is one to catch on DVD rather than the cinema.
EXTRAS Just the trailer.