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Year:   2000
Studio: Black Sheep Entertainment,
        Kaplan/Feder Films
Movie:  3/5
DVD:    0/5

It Had to be You is a large budget independent film (or a small budget mainstream film) about two people meant to be together finding each other. The twist being that they meet during the weekend they're each finalizing their wedding plans.

Charlie (Michael Vartan a year or two before "Alias") is a former police detective now working on his novel. He is going to marry Claire (Joelle Carter), a professional in the publishing business. Claire is a Yuppie-type. They fell in love when they were both struggling. But Claire has moved on from that life and Charlie slowly realizes that the woman he fell in love with is a totally different person.

Meanwhile Anna (Natasha Henstridge) is a grade school teacher and she's marrying a man (who never appears on screen) that she's settling for. As Anna tells her best friend Tracy (Olivia d'Abo), if she couldn't find true love she at least wants happiness.

Their soon-to-be spouses are busy. Charlie and Anna are in the New York to make the final wedding arrangements (band, silverware, groom and bridesmaid gifts). So they run into each other a couple of times and decide to do all these wedding details together. And it only takes a couple of days for them to fall in love with each other. But it's not going to be that easy because they both have feelings for their SO's.
This is a low-key romantic comedy, skewing more towards romance than comedy. Vartan and Henstridge play nice, down-to-earth people who naturally click and really deserve to be together. There are not a lot of obstacles or drama about the romance. It just builds up rather smoothly throughout the movie.

Background music is good, camera work is good, acting is good. It's a nice story and I liked watching the film. The DVD doesn't include anything extra. All in all it's a good romantic movie.
Copyright (c) 2005 Kevin C. Wong
Page Created: January 26, 2005 Page Last Updated: January 26, 2005