Rating: 
Summary: released at the wrong time
Review: The was such a wonderful movie; it is a shame that the studio released it against the summer blockbusters. It would have done so much better and been seen by so many more people if it was released maybe at Christmas. This is one that I will definitely buy and recommend to everyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Dunno what everyone else is smoking...
Review: I saw the theatric release of Down With Love, and I thought it was not only a very good romantic comedy, it was THE romantic comedy. Far too many movies of this genre are bland, w/ terrible acting, and all too familiar of plot lines. So this movie dug back into the beginning of romantic comedies, when the movies hadn't been all warped into a bunch of mindless junk and i think it revived the whole genre. I was very shocked to see the loads of lukewarm and down reviews for this movie, because I greatly enjoyed it.As you prolly have already heard, this movie pays homage to the Doris Day/Rock Hudson sex comedies of the 60s. It's not a spoof in any way or a remake; it is simply using the components of movies of that time and reviving it. With stars such as Ewan McGregor and David Hyde Pierce this movie is propelled, and without there performances i think this movie wouldn't have been the same. The plot line is that Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor) is the ladies man, man's man, man about town type of guy, and Renee Zelweger plays Barbara Novak, the feminist author who thinks women should be "Down With Love", not sex, just as men are to get themselves further in the working industry. The book she writes, Down With Love, becomes an international sensation and quickly deteriorates the lives of men, and especially one's like Catcher Block. Block then decides to go under cover and act as the perfect husband material to Novak and prove that all women want love and marriage. With a plot such as this, a lovely furbished 60's set (practically a flashback, feast for the eyes), and the sexual comic humor (which in my opinion is strangely a more innocent type of comedy) I had a laughing good time. As I said before the acting was also another vital thing in this movie, and I thought some of the performances were magnificent. Take Ewan McGregor's for example, without his style of portraying that type of egotistical male, even the work of just his facial expressions, the movie would've been a loss. Also David Hyde Pierce's role as a worry-worted boss who's ridiculously failing to be as suave as Block was wonderfully acted. I found almost all the performances absolutely wonderful (i disagree with the comment about "shallow acting") and the only thing I thought could've been better was Zelwiger. In the film she seemed to over-emphasize the comedy, yet her look was ideal for this film. Yet, that is still nothing that hardly tainted this production. Furthermore this is a must-see film, and it saddens me that so many well respected reviewers gave such poor ratings. The shame of it all is that Fox released it at the worst time possible, on the weekend following the opening of The Matrix. Its initial opening date, April 11th, was for some reason pushed back, and I think if it had been released earlier, it wouldn't have failed at the box office. All I can tell you is that the movie's failure there had nothing to do with the movie itself, but the careless scheduling and promoting of the people at Fox. I thought it was a very entertaining movie, maybe not Oscar material of course, but if you want to see an enjoyable movie at the theaters, then go and get "Down With Love".
Rating:
Summary: Retro-romance, bright and glossy, and really works
Review: Down With Love (2003) Renee Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, David Hyde Pierce, Sarah Paulson, Rachel Dratch, Jack Plotnick, Tony Randall, Jeri Ryan, Ivana Milicevic, D: Peyton Reed. Retro romance-sitcom has the look, clothes, and color design of the Doris Day-Rock Hudson films that are celebrated here and its synthetically too perfect world, set in 1962 N.Y.C. It's "Battle of the Sexes" when slick, smiling playboy/magazine journalist Catcher Block (McGregor) poses as an astronaut to small town gal Barbara Novak (Zellweger)-whose best-selling feminist novel Down With Love tells women to turn down love which begins to infuriate the men-so he can make her fall head over heels in love and write an expose on her. Hyde Pierce and Paulson play their sidekicks. The formula gets unconventional when a tacked-on twist with Zellweger speaking a longish line of dialogue goes through mistaken identities. Smart, enthusiastically performed rendition could've been less campy, but it's hard to dislike and cleverly and amusingly produced. Running Time: 94 minutes and rated PG-13 for sexual humor and dialogue.
Rating: 
Summary: Down with *Down with Love*.
Review: And no, that doesn't mean that I'm "down with it"; it means that the movie is derivative tripe. It's a smug, smirking, condescending "update" of *Pillow Talk* with Rock Hudson and Doris Day. Sheesh -- do we really need this? Who clamored for a movie like this? Didn't we all just recently suffer through an empty technical exercise in pointless nostalgia last fall with *Far from Heaven*? Movies like these painfully illustrate the creative bankruptcy in Hollywood today. Maybe there are no more new stories to tell -- or, at least, no new ways to tell the old stories -- in the cinema. Meanwhile, we're supposed to be entertained with things like *Down with Love*. The movie practically breaks its neck to distance us from the story by using a deliberately fake set design and hammy acting from the cast. It begins with what's rapidly becoming a retro-cliche: the animated credits-sequence with jazz music blaring on the score. The photography wallows in the pinks and creams of the color spectrum -- it's as if they're shoving gobs of cotton-candy in your face. The overall effect is icky. Well okay, guys, you win. I'm distanced from the movie -- so distanced, in fact, that I won't bother to summarize the Battle-of-the-Sexes plot. I'll save that for a future review of *Pillow Talk*, a movie that wasn't too busy sniggering at itself to actually tell a story. As for the performances: Ewan McGregor is a fair trade-off for Rock Hudson, who was a pretty dreadful actor. And Renee? This actress used to charm me. Like most American men, I developed a bit of a crush on her after *Jerry Maguire*. Unfortunately, Zellweger is swiftly becoming the New Meg Ryan. It's sad to see the Hollywood Machine turn the woman who out-acted Meryl Streep in *One True Thing* into a self-satisfied camera-mugger in dire need of a decent meal.
Rating:
Summary: Great comedy and acting
Review: This is one of the very few comedies that I like and enjoy. I laughed through much of the movie because the comic parts are played out just right and at the right time. I also loved the little twist in the plot near the end of the movie. Very well done and acted by all involved in the making of this movie!
Rating: 
Summary: Supporting actor makes all the difference
Review: Down With Love is a fluffy lampoon of earlier romantic comedies. It has plenty of room for humour but is unfortunately devoid of it most of the time. Renee Zellweger is cute but bland as feminist writer Barbara Novak, and the same goes for Ewan McGregor as her (eventual) romantic counterpart, the snooty chauvinist Catcher Block. Sarah Paulson as Barbara's friend Vicki gives a nice but not awfully interesting performance. The biggest (really, the only) sparkle in this movie comes from the always-wonderful David Hyde Pierce as Catcher's fussy editor, Peter. One's attention is drawn to him immediately, no matter who else is onscreen (and seeing him next to Catcher, you might well wonder why Hyde Pierce is not the leading man and McGregor in the supporting role!). Although he is cast in basically the same role he plays on "Frasier" - and in my opinion is sort of awkwardly matched with Paulson, his romantic counterpart - it doesn't matter a bit - he's fantastic to watch anyway. To sum up: I thought this was a fun but forgettable movie which will probably be enjoyable the first time you see it. One of the stars I gave it is for its enjoyability factor - and the other two are for David Hyde Pierce's great performance. :-)
Rating:
Summary: Up for Down with Love
Review: Even though the film is doing poorly in theaters, there's no reason to ignore the most underlooked film of the summer so far. Unless you're one to dislike casually cheesy chick flicks. Renee Zellwegger and Ewan McGregor give great performances as two 1960s hot shots who try their best to outplay each other. When each of them fall in love underneath a scheme, and the plot thickens. And great plot twists occur. I don't know what it is about director Peyton Reed, but all of his films have a certain feel to it. Reed and all of the set and costume designers caught the feel of a 1960 movie. The sets and costumes literally blew me away. And how the actors portrayed 1960ish characters was great. Renee Zellwegger, Ewan McGregor, David Pierce, and Sarah Paulson all give great performances. With the shining star being the leading lady, Renee. The way she was so choreographed with the score in scenes made her the more endearing. Down with Love isn't perhaps the perfect summer movie, but it is one of the best throwbacks to the 1960s. And with great talent such as Renee and Ewan, this movie is a must.
Rating:
Summary: WHAT A CLASSIC!
Review: When I saw previews for this film, the first words out of my mouth were: I HAVE GOT TO SEE THIS FILM!
This movie was hip, classy, stylish, witty and very retro.
This movie was made in the grand styling of Doris Day versus Rock Hudson movies of the 60's.
The movie is filled with plenty of double entendre and sexiness. The sets were retro and well thought out.
In a day and age when you think movies can't be smart, sexy and fun; along comes DOWN WITH LOVE.
Renee Zellweger is a girl from Maine who decided to write a book about women focusing on their careers and have sex without love-just like men.
Ewan McGregor plays the hip and sexy Catcher Block who goes against his own grain to prove that he can land Barbara Novak (Renee).
David Hyde Pierce plays Catcher's friend and co-worker Peter MacMannus. David's awkward take on Catcher's lifestyle is very fitting of Tony Randall's character from Pillow Talk (Tony also has a small part in Down With Love).
Sarah Paulson is Vicki Hiller, the hippest and chain smoking friend (and new editor) to Barbara Novak.
The script was well thought out and well written. It was sharp, witty, clever and "saucy".
The use of the "split screen" phone calls were fun and different (compared to movies nowadays). They took that idea right from Pillow Talk. I felt like I was transported back to the 60's.
The overall sex appeal of the movie would definitely favor the women (as a man I can say I did not know that Ewan McGregor had that kind of body underneath his clothes-I am jealous).
Every woman in the world is thanking the praises of Barbara Novak and her book. Women all over are finding power over their men. Now Catcher feels threatned and has lost his grip over his girlfriends. Catcher decides he must persue Ms Novak and prove her wrong. So he changes his occupation (writer to astronaut) and his origins (from his Scottish accent to an southern accent).
There is always something to watch out for. Renee's facial expressions and rantings are just like that of Doris Day. Ewan's whole attitude towards wooing women resembles Rock Hudson back in the day.
I want to mention the chanteuse like look of Gwendolyn (Jeri Ryan). She was a Swedish stewardess and girlfriend of Catcher who provides extra sexiness in the movie. She also becomes the person who "let's the cat out of the bag" near the end of the film.
The costumes were gorgeous and clever. The set design was thoughful and dazzling. The low level of music almost in every scene kept the movie bouncy and fun.
I hope this is not the last of it's kind. We need more movies like this. This was fun!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutly Charming ;-)
Review: I will keep this short. The games that the people were playing in this movie was lighthearted and sweet;not like the mean spirted motives of these times we live in now. Ewan McGregor was perfect for the role of Katcher block/Zip Martin. What I loved about this movie was the use of the M word (Marriage). Unlike what you see in a lot of other movies Love,marriage,children are not something to run from. A New beginning of a life together WITH the one you love. very sweet and innocent movie with one hell of a twist.
Rating:
Summary: Retro movie
Review: "Down With Love" is a wonderful movie staring Ewan McGregor and Rene Zelleweger. It's set in the early 60's and what's really cool, is that it's shot and got the feel of a 60's romantic comedy. The movie even opens up with a retro 20th Century Fox logo and Cinemascope logo. Awesome! The story is about a woman named Barbara Novak who writes a book called 'Down With Love' which is an instruction book for how women can live without men and have sex without love and basically live life like men do. Hot columnist Catcher Block is supposed to do a big cover article about her. He's never seen her and thinks she must be an old spinster, so he blows her off one day after another to spend time with all his airline stewardess flings. When her book becomes a worldwide phenomenon and he finally sees what she looks like, he tries to get things going with her, only now she won't give him the time of day. He then decides to write an expose by making the girl who's "down with love" fall in love with him.
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