Kate & Leopold (C+ or 2.5/4 stars)
19th century: Leopold (Hugh Jackman) is an English baron living in New York. He needs to marry a rich woman to recover his family status from possible ruin. 21st century: Kate (Meg Ryan) is a successful businesswoman also living in New York. Due to a sci-fi time incident, they meet each other in present day and ... (shocker) ... fall in love. Of course, things don't remain all lovey-dovey. And their romance goes into jeopardy. What this film has going for it is its likeability. It's a warm, upbeat romantic comedy amid a season of ultra-serious cinema. But the sci-fi aspect doesn't hold up, & the movie falls prey to too much cliche.
1876: Leopold is the Duke of Albany, living quite the privileged life. But upon spying on a stranger in his uncle's home, he is whisked away by accident through a time portal to the near-Brooklyn Bridge apartment of Stuart (Liev Schreiber), his great-great-grandson. Because Stuart gets in an accident (landing him in a hospital bed), he cannot send Leopold back to 1876, and asks his ex-girlfriend, Kate, to watch after him. Not believing his wacky time travel story, Kate still agrees to look after Leopold til Stuart's discharged from the hospital. Kate regrets agreeing to help babysit the man, though, as he winds up being quite the burden; that is ... til she realizes that he'd be the perfect spokesman for an advertising campaign her marketing company is ardently working on.
You see, Kate's actor brother (Breckin Meyer) helps Leopold assimilate; even though he thinks Leopold is another actor who's always in-character. Finally letting her guard down, a bit, Kate begins to be soften & fall for the dashing, intelligent Leopold. Everyone around her appreciates his gentlemanly ways; but it's taken her a much longer time to see what's she's been missing. Major problems arise once they realize that there's a 125 yr. age gap between them. He has to return to 1876. And Kate & Leopold's love affair becomes elusive.
'Kate & Leopold' has a little bit of everything: romance, charms, light comedy, light drama, decent character interaction. But it's also merely serviceable, and all very cliched. I think the movie is fine; but it's more up-the-alley for females (young & old) who would fall for this type of film; an average date movie. I've liked Meg Ryan many times in the past. Her personality ticks are usually what draws me in. But she doesn't quite cut it for me, this time. I think it has more to do with 'Kate' not letting her guard down til so far in the proceedings. It made me feel like she didn't really deserve Leopold.
A lot of this film reminded me of 1980's superior Somewhere in Time. But aside from Christopher Reeves & Hugh Jackman doing their parts very well, Meg Ryan is not as strong as the Jane Seymour role, and the plot isn't nearly as good as the 1980 film, either. My other problem is with the time travel aspect of it. This movie is a romantic comedy, but you can't ditch detailed explanations of how you 'get' to the romance. In other words, in relation to its own sci-fi metaphysical premise, it's not very believable. 'Kate & Leopold' is not a disaster; thanks mainly to Hugh Jackman's star turn. He has all the charisma, looks, & capabilities of a leading man. The 2 leads have 'some' chemistry going on. It's a handsome film. And the tale is pleasant. That's all.
1876: Leopold is the Duke of Albany, living quite the privileged life. But upon spying on a stranger in his uncle's home, he is whisked away by accident through a time portal to the near-Brooklyn Bridge apartment of Stuart (Liev Schreiber), his great-great-grandson. Because Stuart gets in an accident (landing him in a hospital bed), he cannot send Leopold back to 1876, and asks his ex-girlfriend, Kate, to watch after him. Not believing his wacky time travel story, Kate still agrees to look after Leopold til Stuart's discharged from the hospital. Kate regrets agreeing to help babysit the man, though, as he winds up being quite the burden; that is ... til she realizes that he'd be the perfect spokesman for an advertising campaign her marketing company is ardently working on.
You see, Kate's actor brother (Breckin Meyer) helps Leopold assimilate; even though he thinks Leopold is another actor who's always in-character. Finally letting her guard down, a bit, Kate begins to be soften & fall for the dashing, intelligent Leopold. Everyone around her appreciates his gentlemanly ways; but it's taken her a much longer time to see what's she's been missing. Major problems arise once they realize that there's a 125 yr. age gap between them. He has to return to 1876. And Kate & Leopold's love affair becomes elusive.
'Kate & Leopold' has a little bit of everything: romance, charms, light comedy, light drama, decent character interaction. But it's also merely serviceable, and all very cliched. I think the movie is fine; but it's more up-the-alley for females (young & old) who would fall for this type of film; an average date movie. I've liked Meg Ryan many times in the past. Her personality ticks are usually what draws me in. But she doesn't quite cut it for me, this time. I think it has more to do with 'Kate' not letting her guard down til so far in the proceedings. It made me feel like she didn't really deserve Leopold.
A lot of this film reminded me of 1980's superior Somewhere in Time. But aside from Christopher Reeves & Hugh Jackman doing their parts very well, Meg Ryan is not as strong as the Jane Seymour role, and the plot isn't nearly as good as the 1980 film, either. My other problem is with the time travel aspect of it. This movie is a romantic comedy, but you can't ditch detailed explanations of how you 'get' to the romance. In other words, in relation to its own sci-fi metaphysical premise, it's not very believable. 'Kate & Leopold' is not a disaster; thanks mainly to Hugh Jackman's star turn. He has all the charisma, looks, & capabilities of a leading man. The 2 leads have 'some' chemistry going on. It's a handsome film. And the tale is pleasant. That's all.