Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Movie review - "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" (2006) **

One of the best ideads for a comedy in the last decade: a man finds out his girlfriend is a super hero, dumps her, and has to deal with her rage. Main problem - they make it Luke Wilson's story, and while it's funny to have him run from a mad woman, Uma Thurman plays a super hero so she's inherently sympathetic, so he's a prick. I mean, she just wants to find a nice guy and she really likes him, it can't be easy, she has to spend all her spare time fighting crime. And he decides it's too much and goes off for his pretty co-worker. 

The character of Uma is so strong - it's out of whack not to have her at the centre. And why didn't they use Eddie Izzard more, have him plan some evil scheme? Do something evil? They could have adjusted the script, kept the gags - have Uma as the main character, and she mistakenly thinks Luke is cheating on her and goes a bit crazy, then turns good. 

Maybe they were keen not to go with the obvious - but what they have instead isn't satisfying. Another alternative would be to make Uma's character evil, then we mightn't hate Luke Wilson as much when he sells her out. Or have Luke be a bit more of a prick. 

Also irritating are the subplots at Luke's work - the lecherous best friend and the boss worried about sexual harrassment. These go nowhere. 

Two fantastic scenes: one where Uma doesn't want to leave Luke Wilson alone with his friend from work even though there is an emergency (it makes Uma so sympathetic - see what I mean?), and the one where she throws a shark through his window. That is brilliant.

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