The Romantics: Good girl gone bad

If you want to see Katie Holmes in action, The Romantics is not the movie to watch.

Katie Holmes, teen-queen-turned-style-icon and one half of TomKat, is better known for her marital highs and lows than her acting chops. It is for this reason, perhaps, that she has recently tried to recast herself as a ‘serious’ actress — with a leading role in the miniseries “The Kennedys” and as the star of The Romantics.

I haven’t seen “The Kennedys,” but I’m hoping it will have more depth than The Romantics — which tries to echo Blue Valentine’s pathos but ends up falling flat. The Romantics wasn’t a commercial success either, grossing a mere $103,280 at the box office.

The movie centres on a love triangle involving three friends: Laura, played by Holmes, Tom, played by Josh Duhamel and Lila, played by Anna Paquin. Laura and Tom used to be a couple, but their fierce passion couldn’t translate into a functional relationship, and they broke up years ago. Laura, who is also Lila’s bridesmaid, arrives at Tom and Lila’s wedding determined to wish the couple well, but seeing Tom stirs up old feelings and, well, she changes her mind. What follows is typically shallow angsty fare — Laura agonises over her decision, is unwilling to hurt Lila, sleeps with Tom anyway, and then tries to make the whole thing look like Lila’s fault. I’ll leave it to you to find out who ends up with whom.

There have been plenty of highly watchable movies made with the same basic premise — My Best Friend’s Wedding immediately comes to mind — so it is surprising that seasoned director Galt Niederhoffer couldn’t inject enough oomph into The Romantics.

Part of the flaw lies in the movie’s plot and pacing. The film trudges along too slowly, and it is rather far-fetched to imagine that Lila would allow Tom’s ex to serve as her bridesmaid — especially when it is implied that Lila knows the two are still attracted to each other. Tom’s role in this whole farce is also left largely unexamined; it is puzzling that the two women blamed the whole affair on each other when it was quite obvious to me that philandering Tom was the weak link in the equation.

Plot aside, the acting must take its share of the blame. The
Romantic’s characters are poorly developed and wooden. Holmes has mistakenly tried to invoke Laura’s emotional turmoil by perpetually pasting an ‘I’m-so-oppressed-feel-sorry-for-me’ look on her face, which sucks all the animation out of her expressions. Tom, who I’m guessing was meant to be a tortured artist torn between two loves, comes off looking like a foolish, impulsive little boy.

A whole host of other quality actors like Adam Brody, Elijah Wood, and Candice Bergen round out the ensemble cast, but their performances too have been tainted by Holmes’ morose pantomime — and they are each about as lively as false plants.

If you want to see Katie Holmes in action, then, I’d say you wait to watch “The Kennedys” — though I fear that Holmes’ Jackie O will be just as cool and distant as her turn as Laura in The Romantics.

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, May 8^th, 2011.