Rating: Summary: Cute Review: This movie is one of my favorites. It has a great story, puppy love, a doting grandfather, and offers lots of laughs! What else could you want? It does drag a bit at the end.... but I could watch it a million times without tiring.
Rating: Summary: Absolutely wonderful! And finally, nothing offensive! Review: This film is the first romantic comedy in a LONG time that has been worth two hours of my time. It is absolutely fabulous, and is not filled with offensive language, sex-scenes, or adultery. I LOVED it, and I do not typically enjoy romantic comedies.
Rating: Summary: What A Pleasant Surprise Review: I wasn't expecting Return To Me to be bad, but I originally thought the premise sounded a little sappy and the cast sounded a bit odd. I wasn't sure about how the on-screen chemistry btw DD & Minnie Driver would work, and what plot could have David Allen Grier, James Belushi and Carrol O'Conner in the same movie? So, I didn't go in expecting too much. I was really happy with the movie, though. It tugs at the heartstrings and it also makes you laugh a lot. The entire crowd at the screening I attended seemed to enjoy the movie. I highly recommend it as a great date movie. As DD has said in interviews, RTM is wonderful because it's an old-fashioned love story. The soundtrack is wonderful too -- lots of big band music which adds to the old-fashioned feel. It was also really nice to see David Duchovny in a much more light-hearted role. He had some great comedic moments and some great romantic moments. Carrol O'Conner, Robert Loggia and co. almost steal the movie with their hilarious banter. I can't wait to see Return To Me on the big screen when it opens, and I will definitely be adding it to my video collection.
Rating: Summary: Just a plain old feel-good movie Review: I just watched this movie for the first time last week. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Some drama, sad times, romance and comedy. I loved the "senior citizens" in this movie. When they danced along to Frank Sinatra, it cracked me up. What a nice story. I wish we could have more movies of this calibur!
Rating: Summary: Return To Me - Awwww~~~ Review:
It's been so many years since I first watched this movie, yet I still can't seem to forget about it. It's one of those romantic movies that just get stuck in your head forever.
This is definitely a great movie, funny, sweet and romantic. Definitely a "must-have" for the cozy saturday night cuddling hours with your loved ones.
Purple_Garden
Rating: Summary: She'll love it...and so will he! :-) Review: My wife and I just watched this movie for the second time last night - and we both loved it again!
I like both romance films and action flicks (Go Seagal!), but I find that much of the romance films that Hollywood has produced in recent years are...less than stellar, let's say. And most of the leading ladies are quite dreary, IMHO. (Don't EVEN get me started on Meg Ryan! Does that woman ever play a different character, or do all the screenwriters just write "Meg Ryan acts like herself....again"?!?)
Not this film. David and Minnie are wonderful as a couple falling in love. David's ache for his lost wife and new love are almost palpable. Minnie's extended family are HILARIOUS. And Bonnie Hunt and James Belushi absolutely steal many of the scenes that they are in!
Kudos to Bonnie Hunt and Don Lake for writing such a wonderful movie. More! More!
If you haven't seen this film, check it out. You'll laugh, you'll cry....and so will she.
Rating: Summary: What was God thinking? Something good. Trust me. Review: The idea of a man falling in love with a woman, who has received the heart of his late wife in a transplant operation, is a story fraught with peril. One of the most wrenchingly emotional scenes I have ever seen on television was on "St. Elsewhere" where Jack Morrison (David Morse) listened to the heart of his wife beating in the body of another woman. So how "Return to Me" gets to that moment when Bob Rueland (David Duchovny) listens to the heart of his late wife, Elizabeth (Joely Richardson), beating in Grace Briggs (Minnie Driver) is, at least for me, a delicate matter. Fortunately, this romantic comedy has Bonnie Hunt, not only playing Grace's best friend, Megan Dayton, but also as the director and the screenwriter, along with Don Lake. That means there are some brains to go along with ample heart in this romantic comedy from 2000.
"Return to Me" begins by going back and forth between the two characters in Chicago whose lives and love will collide. Bob is an architect and one of his planned projects is to create a new living space for the gorillas at the Lincoln Park Zoo where Elizabeth has been raising money for the effort. Meanwhile, Grace is in the hospital waiting for a heart and being visited by her grandfather, Marty O'Reilly (Carroll O'Connor), and her friend, Megan. On the night that a dinner is held to celebrate having raised enough money for the zoo project, there is an accident. We know that Elizabeth's heart is intended for Grace, so Hunt does not bother to play out everything. We do not see the accident because it is a necessary evil to the story, where the consequences matter much more than needlessly witnessing the event. Instead the preparations for the operation take place in contrast to Bob giving way to grief at the loss of the woman he loves. But something sweet happens: once Elizabeth's heart starts beating again, Bob finally finds enough peace to fall asleep.
We then come to the most delicate part of the story: how Bob and Grace will meet. There is an unspoken sense of magic behind what happens in this film, which would explain why it is that Bob and Grace first pass each other at the Monkey House at the Zoo. There is no meeting, but significantly enough Grace pauses because her heart has started to beat more rapidly. This is a good sign, and an even better one comes when he is persuaded by a friend, Charlie Johnson (David Alan Grier), to O'Reilly's Italian Restaurant. Grace works as a waitress in her grandfather's place, where the cooking is done by Angelo Pardipillo (Robert Loggia), and the ongoing debates are over the relative value of Irish (Bing Crosby) versus Italian (Dean Martin) singers. Bob's date is just not a nice person and when Grace flings back a zinger at her rude condescension, Bob is interested.
The rest of the movie obviously consists of tentative romance, where hand holding is more important than sex, and with the full understanding that at the point where they are happiest the truth will come out and have to be dealt with. At that point we get the movie's best line, "What was God thinking?" The line is so great because it is not only funny but it speaks to the film's persistent notion that there is a greater power at work here, even if it turns out to be simply love and not a mischievous deity. My only complaint, such as it is, would be that "Return to Me" fails to come up with a payoff at the end as good as the setup. Then again, the ending is predictable according to the formula, so it is hard to really come up with a great "how" under those circumstances. But the film is certainly sweet enough for you to weep at the right moments and even if you do not end up crying your eyes out, this is still a laudable effort.
Hunt and Lake also get credit for giving the supporting cast some great bits that justify their showing up. In addition to O'Connor and Loggia having fun at the Irish Italian restaurant, there are Eddie Jones, Marianne Muellerleile, and William Bronder to add zest to the spicy exchanges. There is only one deleted scene on this DVD, but it is this quintet singing "Danny Boy," and then debating the song. Jim Belushi plays Joe Dayton and joins with Hunt in double-teaming everybody else in stealing scenes. Duchovny and Driver are the only ones required to carry heavy emotional baggage and they acquit themselves well in that regard, but the one who really shines is O'Connor as the warm but understated grandfather. There was no doubt when the moment came for him to say the right thing to the right person at the right time, that he was going to deliver. The same can be said for Bonnie Hunt's film.
Rating: Summary: I fell in love with EVERYONE in this film Review: When Return to Me hit theaters the most often heard remark about the film made to me was "the married couple is you and your husband" or words to the effect. So when I saw it I said "how did Bonnie Hunt get into my house and record my life?" She didn't, of course, but you can imagine that made me pre disposed to love this movie. And I do. I can watch it with my children, I can watch it with my inlaws, I can watch it with my mother, and I am never embarrassed by it.
The sound track is phenominal. What fabulous music!! I hear that soundtrack a lot at wedding receptions. . .how much more romantic can ya get? Carroll OConnor and Robert Loggia make the movie for me and my family. As the grandfather and uncle by marriage of the lead character, Gracie, OConnor and Loggia give genuinely loving performances. This film not only affirms that some love is meant to stay with you always but that we make our family and they love us.
Add this film to your chick flick library.
Rating: Summary: "Return to Me" Review: Grieving widower David Duchovny falls for Minnie Driver, not knowing Driver was the recipient of Duchovny's wife's heart.
Really a sweet comedy, with assured direction and writing by Bonnie Hunt. Duchovny and Driver have a great chemistry, and I laughed harder at this than any "American Pie"-type shenaningans that are out there now.
(PG)- Mild gore, profanity, some adult situations
Rating: Summary: Absolutely wonderful! And finally, nothing offensive! Review: Check your cynicism at the door, please. This film is somewhat courageous in the way it wears its heart on its sleeve in these days when any spark of sentiment is usually couched in irony. Bob Rueland (David Duchovny) has lost his beloved wife (Joely Richardson) in a traffic accident; Grace Briggs (Minnie Driver) has received her heart in a transplant operation. It's not giving anything away to let you know that fate brings them together in the end. As soon as the film opens, you know that it couldn't go any other way.
It must be difficult to make such an innocent story work for today's audiences, but writer/director Bonnie Hunt (with co-screenwriter Don Lake) pulls it off. The cast is warm and likeable, the dialogue is sharp, and the music is romantic. Hunt and James Belushi are wonderful as a couple whose affection for each other shines through their constant bickering.
|