My sister didn't like this movie, the reviews were mixed, Shannon didn't like it either. And yet, it is a romantic comedy and it delivered according to its genre. I have no idea why other people didn't like it. Maybe the flaws are enough for them to not believe in the romance or maybe the other parts of the movie were distracting. Beats me. I went to the movie, I liked it. There are flaws but they didn't occur to me during the movie so they didn't detract from my viewing enjoyment.

We start out in 1876, Manhattan. It's some sort of ceremony about the finish of a bridge. Count Leopold Mountbatten is at the ceremony relaxing, making a drawing of the bridge, whilst studiously ignoring the glances from the ladies. A strange man in the crowd attracts his attention. He's dressed a bit funny, laughs inappropriately, and keeps using this small metal box that makes clicking noises at him. When confronted the strange man runs off.

Oh well, he has to get back home anyway. There's a party and he's going to be late. Well, not really so much a party as the last night of his free life, for you see he has to choose a wife tonight. One of the New York well-monied ladies. His family has a lot of debt and he's been sent here to America to marry into one of the new-money families. Meanwhile Leopold bemoans his fate and wishes he had the freedom to pursue his dream of developing the elevator.

At the party Leopold once again spots the mysterious man. He gives chase. The man flees to the new bridge (I guess it's the Brooklyn Bridge come to think of it), climbs to the top and it looks like he's going to jump. As Leopold tries to stop him from commiting suicide, they both fall off the bridge, only to vanish.

Thump thump. Sounds of struggle. Kate McKay thinks it's just Stuart and some girl. She wants her Palm Pilot back so she calls up. Oh, it's just a hacker going to MacWorld, crashing for the night at Stuarts. The next day she stops by to get her PDA and meets Leopold and immediately tags him as one of Stuarts shiftless friends, though she's surprised he has any friends. But life is going to keep throwing them together today until something starts to happen.

The description is too long so I'll try a shorter one. Leopold (Hugh Jackman) is an English Count, something of an dilettante inventor and scientist, trapped in the 20th Century. He takes the whole situation well once it's explained to him. Stuart (Liev Schreiber) is Kate's old boyfriend. He wanted to invent time travel but instead discovered the portals, cracks in time that allow you to travel back to a specific date. Unfortunately, he has an accident and while he's in the hospital, Leopold has to manage by himself. Good thing he meets Charlie (Brekin Meyer), Kate's aspiring-actor brother who thinks that Leopold is also an actor, though one who is always in character.

Then there's Kate (Meg Ryan), an executive at an ad agency. She's hard working and a candidate to head the New York office once "the merger" is completed. Kate has a spunky assistant, Darci (Natasha Lyonne), who keeps trying to tell Kate what to do. Kate has a boss, J. J. (Bradley Whitford who plays a character that acts just like his character Josh Lyman in The West Wing, but who deep down inside is not anywhere as nice), who is trying to put the moves on her.

I've said this before. Romantic comedies are predictable -- guy and girl have to end up together, otherwise it's not a good movie. It's the journey and actual ending where the movie differentiates itself. Time travel is not often used, though the proper gentleman in the modern world has been used. Meg Ryan is the modern-day romantic comedy lead actress. My sister doesn't like her because she left Dennis Quaid for another man. I'm more philosophical. It happens, people fall in love and out of love and in love with someone else. She didn't leave Quaid to be mean to him so I don't hate her. Hugh Jackman has that Aussie rugged charm like Mel Gibson (who, even though he was born in New York, is still the classic Aussie actor). He does a good job as an English gentleman, though occasionally I had a hard time believing that he was such a hunk that the women flocked to him.

I liked the movie. That's the final analysis.