Studio: Gaumont, Fabulous Films

Rating: 3/5

In the first scene of the film Lucy (Monica Potter), a pretty and cerebral columnist who’s just a bit neurotic and obsessive, is dumped by her perfect boyfriend. Skip an indeterminate time later when Lucy is taking a cab ride with her friends and telling them about the five blind dates she had after being dumped.

We are introduced to Doug the entomologist (John Hannah),  Gabriel the passionate playwright (Gael García Bernal), Bobby (Anthony LaPaglia) the professional baseball player, Barry who owns a software retail store (Henry Thomas) and Luke the sports physician (David Boreanaz).

Back to the cab ride and we end the introduction with the reveal that Lucy is getting married to one of those five men. But which one we’ll find out as we go through the first dates.

The main part of the film cycles through the five dates spending a few minutes on each before moving on. In the date with Doug, Lucy is drunk since it’s her first blind date. Gabriel’s date turns into an immediate sexual encounter. Bobby’s date is a clash of Bobby’s working class mentality with Lucy’s more sophisticated cultured one.

The Barry date is quite embarrassing when they run into Lucy’s parents, who invite the two back to the family home and then proceed to show home movies of Lucy and gossip about her. Finally Luke is cultured, handsome, and rich but Lucy has to compete for his affection when the fishing trip they go on includes the pretty daughter of Luke’s college mentor.

In the last part of the movie we quickly cut down the potential suitors until Lucy has to choose between two of them. It’s interesting to see how the initial impressions we get change as the movie goes one and we see more of each of the five men.

We also get to know more about Lucy, who acts quite differently in each of the five dates. And yet there is her core personality that shines through. The film is mostly a character drama though the ending is romantic.

Monica Potter does a fine job. There were times when she looked and acted like a young Julia Roberts. Of the five potential suitors I thought John Hannah and Anthony LaPaglia acted the best. Other actors include Robert Klein as Luke’s mentor, Harold Ramis as Lucy’s father and Julie Christie as her mother.

Overall it’s a nice movie especially for an independent film.