The Very Thought of You (1999)

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I suppose you can give this movie a few points for taking an unconventional approach to romantic comedy. Instead of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, The Very Thought of You gives us boy moons over girl, girl exploits and then blows off boy, girl throws herself at second boy, second boy shows all the genuine interest of a big Judy Garland fan, girl meets cute with third boy, third boy finds out that acting like Billy Crystal from When Harry Met Sally doesn't actually work with women, girl guilts second boy into giving her another chance, girl runs away from second boy and then runs back to him. Oh, and boys 1, 2 and 3 are all lifelong friends, which girl doesn't discover until it's far too late.All that's rather convoluted and the sequence of events and the behavior of girl and her three boys often doesn't hold up under scrutiny, but it's certainly different and more involved than what you usually get in a romantic comedy. These filmmakers were so focused on being unconventional, though, they forgot that rom-coms live or die on two very simple points.1. Does the audience want to see boy and girl get together?2. Can you keep them from getting together until the end of the movie in an entertaining way?These filmmakers never answer those questions in the affirmative, nor do they seem to even understand those questions are being asked in the first place.Martha (Monica Potter) is a Minneapolis girl who flies to London to escape a life of quiet desperation. In short order she meets Daniel (Tom Hollander), who moons over her; Laurence (Joseph Fiennes), who responds to her overt flirtations with all the energy of a damp sponge; and Frank (Rufus Sewell), a miserable git who wants to bed her out of spite but whose wooing technique is only slightly more advanced than dipping her pigtails in the teacher's inkwell.In truth, you can see the potential for a successful rom-com here. Monica Potter is more than cute enough and Tom Hollander and Rufus Sewell are appealingly pathetic as the obstacles that get in between Martha and Laurence. Joseph Fiennes is sort of a dud, but that's more because Laurence is such a dud. What keeps The Very Thought of You from being even marginally effective are some really terrible storytelling decisions.To start with, Martha and Laurence don't even meet each other until you're nearly halfway through the film. First the movie is all about Martha and Daniel, then Martha and Frank, then it focuses on just Martha before finally getting around to the two people who are supposed to get together at the end. By that time, however, you really can't give a crap. You've seen too little of Laurence to care what happens to him and you've see too much of Martha to believe it when she swoons over him like a 1950s teenybopper over Frank Sinatra.This film is also a bit nonlinear, showing us Daniel and Frank's encounters with Martha and then jumping back in time to show us what was going on with Laurence and Martha at the same time. It's not confusing to the audience, but these filmmakers must have lost track of what was going on because there are at least a few occasions where characters act like they know things they shouldn't have learned yet in the story. In particular, Laurence's decision to run away from Martha for the first time doesn't make any sense based on the information available to him at that moment.And while I've already mentioned it, let me emphasize how weird it is that when Martha falls head over heels for Laurence, he responds to her for a long time like a gay guy who hasn't yet come out of the closet. When Laurence finally starts showing some interest in her, it's so abrupt and total a change that it's like he got a steel bolt shoved into his brain that altered his personality.This movie isn't as painful to sit through as some disastrous rom-coms I've seen, but you won't care a whit if boy and girl get together, stay apart or get kidnapped by clowns and forced to perform a geek act in the carnival.

This film was a disappointment, my cable provider described it as a witty comedy, but it was awful. The cast proved that light romantic comedy is harder than it looks. Avoid this movie it's not very funny and doesn't make any sense.The script from Peter Morgan (The Queen, Last King of Scotland) was weak, the plot feeble and you didn't really care about any of the characters.Martha (Monica Potter)is an American woman on the rebound. She escapes from a failed romance in Minnesota and hops on a cheap flight to London. At the airport she meets Daniel (Tom Hollander), a short but successful music executive. Everyday he meets attractive women but falls in love with Potter at their first encounter. Martha does not reciprocate Daniel's advances but because she only has $35 to her name she accepts his hospitality. Martha meets Laurence (Joseph Fiennes) and promptly falls in love with him. Fiennes and Hollander are best friends. The series of coincidences and chance meetings defy credibility.

Joseph Fiennes acts unbelievably badly in this movie, it was really painful to watch. His brother Ralph must be appalled! He wasn't quite as bad in Shakespeare in Love. It could have been an OK piece of fluff to watch on the couch if it weren't for his acting. At least he's really good looking which gives a slight compensation! Rest of the cast range from bad to ordinary acting- wise, and the characters are all quite irritating - especially Rufus Sewell's character. The character of the neighbor was OK. Monica Potter was reasonable. Production values were fine - it looks like a regular film with an OK budget, and the camera work etc. were all fine for a B movie. The plot wasn't in any way credible and despite the premise that three guys are attracted to one girl there didn't seem to be any chemistry between anybody at all. I didn't feel that I cared in the slightest about what happened to anybody. I really disliked this movie, in case you can't tell already!

I really didn't expect much when I saw this movie. I was in full knowledge of it being a self-proclaimed 'British/American romantic comedy with a twist', whatever that means, but I honestly took my seat at the theatre half-expecting to sleep the way through it.Boy was I wrong!?!?This is not a flawless movie, far from it. On the downside it felt a way bit simple and sometimes dangerously close to becoming a generic movie but it actually did a great job in walking the tightrope.The pacing, it must be said, is brilliant as it does a great job of telling you full four stories and establishing multi-layered relationships between 3 best friends from Britain and a young woman from America with such ease that you feel like you've known them forever. The acting is spot on, although credit must be given to Rufus Sewell who owns this movie as the unfortunate Frank, whose "like me! like me!" plea warms my heart every time I see it!The music is great, the lighting is terrific and somehow, over a period of 30 minutes, this movie manages to create and establish a scenario so perfect that every man and woman will emerge from the cinema wishing they were there. Of course, not all is gold that glitters and as such the scenario more or less crumbles throughout the story but the main theme in the movie is this; it's there and if you keep your eyes open it just might happen to you.Of course, 'happen to you' is the easy part. What's hard is trying to make it work all the way, i.e. not just catching the ball but actually carrying it all the way into the end-zone. Which is where the story gets interesting.I advise anyone who doesn't have any prejudice against romantic comedies to go see this one, as it will surprise you. No, it's not the movie to end all movies, nor is it a piece that will change your outlook on life, but for 90 minutes it will make you forget about all your worries and just enjoy yourself: laugh, smile, hold hands, wish you were holding hands, feel loved or love someone or both, and eventually walk out into the real world feeling like you've experienced a piece of bliss that has made your day a good one.Give it a try, it's not big but it might bite you.4/5.