Alex and Emma (2003)

D+ SDG Original source: National Catholic Register

Take One: Romantic-comedy vehicle shuttles between two romantic plots, one involving a novelist (Luke Wilson) and a stenographer (Kate Hudson), the other involving characters in the novel he’s writing.

2003, Paramount. Directed by Donald Petrie. Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey, Bebe Neuwirth, Robert Klein.

Artistic/Entertainment Value

Moral/Spiritual Value

-2

Age Appropriateness

Adults

MPAA Rating

PG-13

Caveat Spectator

Some sex-related humor and depictions of nonmarital affairs, including a non-explicit bedroom scene played for laughs (no explicit nudity); brief profanity and crude language; brief violence and menace.

Take Two: The big problem: Neither set of romantic entanglements is actually romantic, and neither set of characters is interesting. Nonmarital affairs in both storylines include an energetic though non-explicit bedroom scene played for laughs.

Final Take: Another misfire from the once-reliable Reiner, Alex and Emma is occasionally amusing but never makes you care.

Comedy, Romance