SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

blrnani And it should be compulsory viewing for anybody wanting to understand the "Me Too" movement. We are introduced to Johnny, an oafish brat who leverages his minor celebrity status as a moderately successful writer to feed his predatory sexual instincts, which along with bar fights are portrayed as the normal behaviour we should expect from any healthy American male. Then he meets Mercy, a very attractive, intelligent and self-assured young lady who not only resists his superficial get-me-laid charms, but delivers a ruthless critique of his latest novel. If it had been a guy, Johnny would probably have punched him in the face and walked away. But he is intrigued by this woman and challenges her opinions, which she eloquently justifies, point by point, and he is smitten. That he seems to take the criticism on board wins him credit with her, and they start dating. The beast has been tamed, as Mercy (beautifully played by Wendy Glenn) brings out the very best in him (as a good healthy relationship should). She cancels her return to NY. He takes her to meet his father (played by real life father James Caan). Marriage plans are being laid. Then we see an even more oafish Johnny, shorn of even the superficial charm he had in the beginning. What has happened... where is Mercy? And we learn of the tragedy that struck the flourishing relationship. People do stupid things, but this contrivance stretched credibility a bit too far. Mercy gets out of the car and hurries to her appointment. We see her bag lying in plain view on the front seat, as if she had been sitting on it. Only Johnny cannot see it, and he drives off, taking her inhaler with him. Mercy is asthmatic and when the lift stops, she has an attack and dies! Women take their bags with them everywhere. And when one suffers from unpredictable asthma attacks and your inhaler is your only lifeline, you not only do not forget your bag but - as another reviewer pointed out - you have a back-up in case of purse snatchers and other eventualities. So tragic as Mercy's demise is, it has to be a strong contender for a Darwin Award. Allied to the unattractive flaws of the lead character, the nature of Mercy's demise undermines the film, although another strong female character (played by Erika Christensen) offers hope that Johnny may find happiness.

MBunge When actor Scott Caan wrote this script, he did an amazing job of condensing a stock romantic comedy formula into one of the sharpest and most personable 30 something minutes you'll ever see. That section of Mercy is so affecting that even though the film only has one other decent scene in it, you'll stay involved with the story through all the other too serious, self-important melodramatics. The problem is that once Caan got to the end of the formula, he couldn't come up with any more plot on his own. This is like the move Jersey Girl, except Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez didn't have a kid so when Lopez' character died, there's nothing for the Affleck character to do but mope around on screen for another hour. And I actually liked Jersey Girl and also enjoyed this motion picture. Mercy is just another example of how writers today are so good at other elements of storytelling but can't plot their way out of a paper bag.Johnny Ryan (Scott Caan) is that classic romantic comedy stereotype - the guy who doesn't believe in love. Johnny is an author of romantic novels who's happiest moment in any relationship with a woman is when she leaves the next morning without being asked. Then, to the surprise of absolutely no one who has seen even one of these flicks, Johnny runs into a woman who blows right through his nonsense and falls hopelessly in love with her. Mercy (Wendy Glenn) is a literary critic and her charm and confidence completely disarm Johnny. Their courtship, following Johnny's clever and wonderfully character defining interactions with one of his heartbroken friends (John Boyd) and two happily married others (Bre Blair and Troy Garity), is entirely predictable and thoroughly delightful.Then the story jumps forward to Johnny's heartbreak after his relationship with Mercy has ended, which is totally done in earnest even though it's seems to be an exact mirror of his friend's heartbreak, which was treated as comedy. The story then jumps back to why Johnny's story is different and then jumps forward again to Johnny emerging from his grief and back into the dating pool. All of that stuff has an utterly different tone and approach than the opening rom-com fluff of Johnny and Mercy. It is dour instead of bubbly. It is overwrought instead of sly. It is about a whole lot of nothing instead of the reliable step-by-step paradigm of boy meets girl.The scenes at the beginning with Johnny and his friends and then Johnny and Mercy are so much fun and so well crafted that I didn't mind the film shifting hard into essentially a different genre, from rom-com to tragedy. The initial switch was so jarring and so unexplained that I lost a little of my involvement and never got it back, not even when the switch was later explained, but by that point I cared about Johnny Ryan and where he was going to end up. Once that happens, and you don't have to necessarily do all that much original or daring to make it happen, you'll follow a character's story all the way to the end. If I hadn't been made to care about Johnny, I would have definitely lost patience with this movie and its schizophrenic nature.It's almost as if Scott Caan wrote this script to prove he could not only create both a great romantic comedy and a great drama, but he could seamlessly weave them together. Well, Caan sure wrote a great rom-com. He wrote an okay but aimless drama. Combining them together, though, was pretty much a failure. It's probably a bad idea to begin with, but after the moment of tragedy that divides the two, Caan simply doesn't have enough plot to sustain the story. There just aren't enough things that occur and all the non-linear machinations of Mercy can't disguise that. After watching a series of events where two people fall adorably in love, the rest is nothing more than watching one of them be sad until the film ends.With the excellent performances of Wendy Glenn as Mercy and Dylan McDermott as Johnny's agent, this movie starts great and whimpers to the end but remains worth watching.

Luke Patrick Written by and starring Scott Caan? Usually this would be a "sink or swim" attempt by an actor. I believe it was a great shot. In my opinion, a legacy actor that makes his own legacy is to be revered. Scott Caan including his own father into the story was a great addition to the realism of the story. This is a "man movie" and a "chick flick" rolled into one. Of course there is one exception... No guns or martial arts. The relationships of the main characters to one another helps make it very real and makes the immersion into the film easier than expected. Predictable? Somewhat. Cheesy? Not so much. Well played sir? Yes. The cast is talented infinitely beyond what the gross of the movie indicates. All babble aside; I loved the clever lines, solid performances, warmth, and realism. I agree with the previous review, in the fact that it will not be winning any awards. I feel, however it is well worth the time watching it for the true romantic realist.

FilmRap Did you ever know a guy who had lots of girl friends and one night stands but who seemed to have no intentions of ever falling in love? Johnny (played by the producer and screenwriter of this film, Scott Caen ) is a 30 year old successful author who writes about romance and women. Perhaps he is trying to understand what a real relationship is about since his parents split up when he was quite young and his father ( played by his own real father James Caan) tells him unequivocally that there is no such thing as love. Of course, he does fall in love with a book critic who doesn't like his latest book and the story goes from there. The film is moderately successful in examining the impact of love on this young man. There are some insightful moments which will resonate with many young men struggling with this universal theme which has been depicted in many great movies. What seemed to be lacking was the opportunity for the audience to know Mercy (played by Wendy Glenn) well enough to also fall in love with her, or at least understand Johnny's love for her as we had, for example understood Woody Allen's feelings for Annie Hall or other cinematic romances. The scenes between Johnny and his father were well done. The younger Caen told our preview screening audience that these were particularly difficult for him since he actually has a close relationship with his dad as compared to the distant one they played in the film. The screenwriter/actor chose Patrick Hoelck, an old friend whom he trusted to be the Director and he was rewarded with a well-photographed movie, which captured the emotions and transformation of the main character. (2010) ***