In case you’re getting cozy on your couch this weekend and need some fluff to help raise your spirits in between updates on the corononavirus epidemic, here are four super-cutesy movies to binge on Hulu.
LEAP YEAR
Sometimes these chick-flicks are a lot of the same. The quirky girl, the cocky guy, and the constant bickering that inevitably leads to the realization that they’re totally in love. And we wouldn’t have them any other way. (Okay, maybe sometimes we would, but we still love the ones that take us through the same old predictable routine.)
This time the quirky girl is Anna (played by Amy Adams), the cocky guy is Declan (Matthew Goode), and the bickering is about Anna’s determination to get to Dublin, Ireland, in time to propose to her boyfriend (Adam Scott) on Leap Day and Declan’s determination to antagonize her as she gets knocked off course every step of the way. Anna, who is routine and rigid and has her life meticulously planned out (as well as this trip), hires Declan, a hotel manager/cook/taxi driver who’s not so much of a planner as he is a spontaneous free faller, to drive her as far to Dublin as he can. But after a scuffle over a cassette tape, a blockade of cows in the road, a car that flies off a curve, and a stolen suitcase named Louis, Declan becomes more of an irksome escort than a taxi driver (seeing as how the taxi is in a ditch).
But jumping through all these hoops makes Anna wonder if she’s on a mission to propose to the wrong guy. Her insistence on living her life and making her decisions according to a detailed schedule hasn’t gotten her where she expected, so maybe veering off course is fated to show her that the cocky guy who doesn’t have his whole life in order is the one she should’ve been looking at all along.
HITCH
Will Smith and Eva Mendes are supposed to be front and center, but it’s Kevin James and Amber Valletta who steal the show. That’s not to say Smith and Mendes don’t have the necessary screen presence and chemistry to make a rom-com worth watching, both portraying assertive workaholics who don’t feel they have anything to prove, but James as the bumbling CFO who’s got no game and Valletta as the gorgeous heiress who’s clumsily adorable are the supporting characters with the supporting storyline that effortlessly takes over.
Alex Hitchens a.k.a. Hitch (Smith) is a professional “date doctor” who helps socially challenged men woo the women of their dreams. Albert Brennaman (James) is a not-so-suave hopeless romantic who’s love struck by a highly sought-after socialite (Valletta) that usually dates the rich, famous, and exceptionally tall and handsome. When Albert hires Hitch to assist him, a gossip columnist named Sara Melas (Mendes) gets a tip that sets her out to expose the infamous date doctor that she previously thought was an urban myth. But Sara happens to be romantically involved with Hitch, whom she doesn’t realize is the date doctor she’s intent on publicly outing, so that’s likely to cause some drama in this sweet, charming tale.
No Strings Attached
When Emma (Natalie Portman) invites her old friend, Adam (Ashton Kutcher), to be her date to her father’s funeral after recognizing him at a party one night, we quickly get a sense of the type of girl Emma is. Detached and unwilling to feel. And Adam figures that out, too, when she sends him on his way and tells him she doesn’t want to see him again.
The two meet up again a few years later and exchange phone numbers, but when he finally calls her on a drunken night after an upsetting encounter with his ex-girlfriend (Ophelia Lovibond) and wakes up naked on her couch with no recollection of what happened the night before, they quickly end up in her bedroom, forging an agreement to be friends with benefits, somewhat minus the friends part. Nothing happened the night before, apparently, besides Adam stripping for her roommates and making a fool out of himself, but that’s no reason things can’t happen now. And then again and again.
Imagine how splendidly that goes. Adam isn’t as detached as Emma. He wants more than their arrangement entails, but it only takes one moment of expressing too many feelings to send Emma running. But when she finally realizes she needs to stop being so afraid, will it be too late?
Also starring Kevin Kline (Grand Canyon, A Fish Called Wanda), Greta Gerwig (Maggie’s Plan, China, IL), Mindy Kahling (The Office, The Mindy Project), and Jake Johnson (New Girl, Safety Not Guaranteed).
MORNING GLORY
And then there’s this engaging tale about a perky optimist with big dreams and bigger ambition. Expecting a promotion, Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams) instead loses her job at a morning show in New Jersey to someone with a more business experience. At first discouraged and reevaluating her longtime goal to work for The Today Show, Becky’s hope is revitalized when she eagerly accepts the position of executive producer for a failing morning show in New York. Despite concerns about her less-than-desirable resume for such a high-ranking designation, Jerry Barnes (Jeff Goldblum) takes a chance on Becky when she promises that not only can she can save Daybreak from being cancelled, but she can also turn it into the hit it once was.
She’s off to a rough start. There’s a reason the show is on the verge of being axed, after all, and she’s got little to work with besides a barely-there budget and a crew with a lot of potential that they’re not that into using. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so Becky coerces Pulitzer Prize, 16-time Emmy winning veteran news journalist Michael Pomeroy (Harrison Ford) into co-hosting with Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton), whom he thinks is beneath him, along with everyone and everything else.
Michael’s bad attitude and refusal to pretend he wants to be there (even while on camera) makes the situation worse, but underneath all that stubbornness and angry growling hides a reluctant willingness that only someone with Becky’s pestering yet endearing nature might be able to tap into. In the end, will Becky and Michael stop yelling at each other long enough to save Daybreak and each other?
Also starring Patrick Wilson (Hard Candy, Aquaman) and John Pankow (Mad About You, The Object of My Affection).
Certain Movies & Things 