Product Description

Renee Zellweger (Chicago) and Ewan McGregor (Moulin Rouge) are the toast of the town in the most stylish romantic comedy of the year! From the producers of American Beauty and the director of Bring It On comes a teasing, tantalizing battle of the sexes that is "pure enchantment" (Daily News). When best-selling feminist author Barbara Novak (Zellweger) becomes the target of dashing playboy Catcher Block (McGregor), these sparring, would-be lovers generate enough sparks to fly you to the moon and back. In other words, the ultimate catch has just met his match!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18848 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-10-07
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.com
The bright, glossy world of Doris Day and Rock Hudson sex comedies gets a self-aware brush-up in Down with Love. Pillow-lipped Renée Zellweger (Chicago) plays Barbara Novak, the author of a bestselling book called Down with Love that advises women to focus on their careers and have sex à la carte--just like a man would. Determined to prove that Novak is just as vulnerable to love as any woman, dashingly chauvinist magazine writer Catcher Block (ever-charming Ewan McGregor, Moulin Rouge) pretends to be a courtly astronaut who wouldn't dream of putting his hand on a woman's knee. This piffle of a story seems like nothing more than an excuse for ironic double-entendres and dazzling production design, until a sneaky plot twist suddenly raises the stakes for the movie's end. As he always does, the brilliant David Hyde Pierce (Frasier) scores the most comic points as Block's fussy editor. --Bret Fetzer

From The New Yorker
A lo-cal attempt at no-sex romantic comedy, a genre that was hardly substantial in the first place. Ewan McGregor plays Catcher Block, a writer for Know magazine in 1962. Renée Zellweger plays Barbara Novak, a mannequin lightly disguised as a best-selling author. The plot stitches them loosely together, as Catcher, the unreconstructed Lothario, tries to force Barbara, the scourge of soft hearts, to fall in love with him. It is hard to divine the purpose behind this pastiche: is the director, Peyton Reed, making sport of the innocent froth that passed for romance in a more innocent era, or is he aiming to revive it as a straight exercise in retro style? Can one simply drop an outdated genre into the laps of modern moviegoers and hope that it still works? The gags wander between the sweet and the unconsciously filthy, and the project's principal appeal will be to devotees of early-sixties hemlines. Indeed, given the blinding array of colors on show, the movie may be viewed most fruitfully under the influence of early-sixties pharmaceuticals. With David Hyde Pierce as Block's editor, who really isn't gay. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

entirely forgettable
This piece of fluff was so forgettable that my wife and I were about half an hour into it before we realized we'd actually seen it before.
I'm giving it two stars because there were a couple of moments of witty, well-written dialogue, because the retro-early sixties fashions were mildly amusing and because David Hyde Pierce gives a funny performance. I also liked the faux-Gershwin music.
Apart from that, not much to object to or admire either. The leads don't have much chemistry and McGregor especially seems very out of his element like a callow, immature version of Sean Connery.
This is apparently an "omage" to the Rock Hudson-Doris Day movies of the early sixties. Those weren't much good either so it's not surprising that this attempt to reproduce them also fails to make much of an impression.

Stupid
Doris Day and Rock Hudson movies were no good the first time, with their split screen phone conversations and crossed wires. They never rose above a bad TV sitcom. So why would Hollywood producers do another one--not a spoof but a straight copy? Are there really no good new stripts available?

Renee Zellweger is a good actress and has done some good light comedy, as in "Nurse Betty." She's also done drama and musicals. Why she'd allow her talents to be wasted in a film like this is beyond me.

I watched as much of it as I could, hoping it would amount to something. It never did.

hilarious
Totally hilarious and creative. I'm not a Rene Zelwegger fan (I am a big Ewan fan), but this was a great movie. Awesome ensemble cast. Very fun visually, very snappy dialogue. Definitely one you'll enjoy watching over again.