Born Romantic (2001)

Simply A Masterpiece

Crappy film

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Centered around a salsa club, three men pursue three women across London. Fergus is trying to find his ex-girlfriend.Charmer Frankie, is trying his hardest to pull the beautiful Eleanor.Robber Eddie is trying to find, and also pull, one of his victims, cemetery worker Jocelyn...In the late nineties and early noughties, there were a slew of these British romantic comedies, that were trying to be a sort of antidote to the sickly sweet behemoths that were Richard Curtis movies.We Had This Years Love, If Only, House, Virtual Sexuality, and this. And while some of them were funny and quite the alternative (think Lock Tock for the ladies) they disappeared without a trace, because they were too familiar and felt a little bit too depressing at times.This film, whilst it has a few genius moments, features too many people with miserable faces to be anything like a cheerful movie. We have Adrian Lester as a sort of guardian, watching their lives as they sit in the back of his cab, being drunk and depressed.And apart from McCormack, none of the characters are very likable. They are either thieves, drunkards, loose women, or stuck up.So at the end, you really couldn't care less, because they don't really deserve to be happy.But there are funny moments, and despite the unlikable characters, the performances are brilliant.Just do it less gloomy next time....

This film is about 3 men trying very hard to get to the hearts of three women. These six people are connected through the same taxi they take in different times.In the beginning, the film is confusing because of the three parallel stories to introduce the three couples. It took me a while to understand who is who! After all the scene setting, the film becomes a lot more interesting and human. The character development is good, and all six leading characters get their own unique profile. Catherine McCormack's anxious and hypochondriacal character is the most memorable. The film ends with the message that everyone wants love, we just don't know how to get it.

I just rented this - a great mistake. There are some films that make you feel you're inside the mind of someone you loathe - I remember feeling this way watching Death Wish III, watching Ten Things You Know About Her, and watching this.Romantic comedy needn't be terribly funny, have a plausible plot, create a believable hurdle for the two loves, or even have characters you believe should be together -- but it must have likable characters. If they aren't people you care for, it fails. This movie fails.This movie asks us to root for three couples to get together: i) a sadly scared wallflower to get together with a man who mugs others daily (with chloroform, usually at an ATM), ii) a recently divorced man (yet another obsessed with the Rat Pack a la Swingers) to get together with a foul-mouthed mean-spirited vain woman, and iii) a third man who left his fiancée ten days before their wedding to get together with her now that she's become an ugly (and yet again) foul-mouthed tramp with a different unknown man each night who likes to put the strangers down for what she believes to be their sexual inadequacy.It was difficult watching this not to feel sorry for the decline of movie-making in Britain. One can't help while watching this, thinking of the charm, the warmth, the intelligence, the grace of the characters in movies portrayed by such as Jean Simmons or Greer Garson, Anna Neagle or Deborah Kerr, Margaret Lockwood or Vivien Leigh, Celia Johnson or Sally Ann Howes, the Vanessa Redgrave of Morgan, or Camelot, or the Julie Christie of Billy Liar - in such films as Bank Holiday or Night Train to Munich, Waterloo Bridge or Stairway to Heaven, the Clouded Yellow or I See A Dark Stranger, one sees humor shown by people one likes - with charm and imagination and finely- written lines. For decades now, British filmmakers have been afraid to create lovely female characters - except in period pieces. Only in those can we see sympathetic female lead characters - contemporary settings apparently require that we be served up deeply unsympathetic women and told to like them. This filmmaker apparently believes that straightforward criminal behavior is a charming quirk, that degeneracy is gracious and humorous. It's sad - and will leave any viewer feeling like he wants a shower after the film ends. Despite yelling at the screen, "NO! RUN! RUN!" the movie brings these couples together for no reason other than to illustrate their suicidal tendency.This is just a truly ugly and ignorant movie. At one point, the wallflower character says that it's a terrible pity that Britain doesn't have its own "Day of the Dead" - leaving every viewer thinking, "But Britain has commemorated All Souls Day and All Saints Day for centuries before Mexico - I don't understand." At one point, a woman is mugged, and realizes she can identify both the criminal who chloroformed her (leaving disfiguring marks) - and where he lives - yet bewilderingly, the movie fails to inform anyone why the police are not called.At one point, a cab driver who has never apparently been to this salsa club that figures in many of the scenes - walks in and immediately and expertly begins to dance with the instructor. Why? We sadly suspect it is merely because the screenwriter believes that black men dance well. (Oddly, the club itself seems to have dozens of black men dancing there each evening - and no black women). We are given no hint of why the couples do finally get together - there is simply no reason given us why the conflicts that existed have been eliminated. We are simply told that this is so. This is a difficult point of resolution for many romantic comedies - and if we wanted any of these couples to be together, if we could bear two of the women or the man in the third couple, we'd forgive it - but we can't - and we don't. We hate them. This is one to hate - and will leave you feeling strongly that you never accidentally see another movie written by this screenwriter.

I found this movie to be a pleasant surprise. The dialog was entertaining and quite funny. The characters are all lost and looking for someone or something to fulfill their lives. They each have something that makes their lives pathetic. As the film progresses the characters all seem to find improvement and are all helped by the Taxi Driver, Jimmy, who brings them together and helps them out. The main theme running through this delightful film, is that there is someone for everyone. Even a reclusive girl, who is obsessed with death and a petty thief who can't pull off a successful robbery. The story is well written and well acted. It leaves you with a warm and fuzzy happy ending. So, if you like happy endings, grab your loved one and cuddle up on the couch and give this one a try.