Alyson Hannigan

Ugly scenes in unromantic comedy

Directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer

Starring Alyson Hannigan, Adam Campbell, Sophie Monk

83 mins

Date Movie is made for young people with a knowledge of romantic comedy and a taste for the tasteless. It seeks to combine parody with romance.

Julia (Alyson Hannigan) is enormously fat at the beginning of the film, but is taken to a garage by a dwarf and radically reduced in size. She changes from being a parody Bridget Jones to being a parody of both Bridget Jones and Julia Roberts. She falls in love with Grant (Adam Campbell), notionally a parody Hugh Grant, but her family is against her marrying him.

Pausing there for a moment: Alyson Hannigan is incapable of parodying Julia Roberts effectively because Julia Roberts is totally out of her league. When Alyson smiles, she smiles; when Julia Roberts smiles, she lights up an entire London postal district.

Adam Campbell is incapable of parodying Hugh Grant effectively. Hugh Grant is a clever Englishman with a certain social background and a certain on-screen technique. Adam Campbell seems to have no understanding of any of this. And, anyway, Hugh Grant is constantly successfully parodying himself.

Several films are parodied - or, rather, parts of several films are weakly copied. Meet the Fockers provides much of the action, some of it disgusting. We also have references to Big Fat Greek Wedding, Meet the Parents and The Wedding Planner. But with a nod to My Best Friend’s Wedding, the film achieves a success, with startlingly glamorous Sophie Monk playing the Cameron Diaz role of ex-fiancée.