Product Description

From the director of Madonna: Truth or Dare, this delightful comedy about the rocky road to true love stars Brittany Murphy (8 Mile, Just Married) as the free-spirited "Jacks." An assistant at British Vogue, Jacks adores fixing up her friends, but when it comes to finding the right guy for herself, she's totally clueless. Love comes knocking at her door when she meets sexy photographer Paolo (Santiago Cabrera, TV's Heroes), but will she dare to let her guard down and let romance in?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5585 in DVD
• Brand: Image Entertainment
• Released on: 2008-06-17
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 90 minutes

Amazon.com
An ultra-modern romantic comedy that portrays heterosexual and homosexual relationships with an openness and candor deemed either deserved or shocking depending on one's point of view, Love and Other Disasters explores the complex difficulties inherent in modern relationships while poking fun at those relationships and the business of movie making. The straight "British Vogue" assistant Emily "Jacks" Jackson (Sin City's Brittany Murphy) and the openly homosexual Peter Simon (Brothers and Sister's Matthew Rhys) are best friends who live together with a familiarity that's usually reserved for the closest of family members. Bathroom chats while one takes a shower and the other sits on the toilet are commonplace in this household and that same openness extends to discussions of their romantic and sexual relationships with the same or opposite sex. Jacks' usually accurate "gaydar" fails her when she meets photographer Paolo Sarmiento (Heroes' Santiago Carbrera) and thus begins a complicated relationship between Paolo and Jacks in which Jacks attempts to set Paolo up with Peter without his knowledge and Paolo yearns for a relationship with Jacks while assuming that she's romantically involved with Peter. Add into this unusual love triangle an ex-boyfriend James (Elliot Cowen) whom Jacks is still sleeping with out of pity; Jacks' emotionally distraught friend Tallulah (Catherine Tate); an elusive David Williams (Will Keen) who Peter bumps into and declares the object of love at first sight even though the two have never actually met; and a host of other farcically odd characters and the stage is set for a romantic comedy unlike any other. On top of it all, James is struggling to write a screenplay that reflects his own reality, but is finding honesty hard to adhere to in the Hollywood business of movie making. Guest cameos include Gwyneth Paltrow and Orlando Bloom. Viewers will find this modern twist on the classic romantic comedy quite funny and entertaining as long as they are willing to put aside any homophobic tendencies and laugh at the absurdities of the world we live in. --Tami Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Definitely more "Love" than "Disaster"...
In a genre littered with hundreds of samey quickly-forgotten offerings of mediocre quality, this one differentiates itself surprisingly well. The story is older than Shakespeare: girl meets boy, boy likes girl, but the inevitable misunderstandings contrive to keep them apart until the end. Nothing new, but what raises "Love" from the crowd is both its shameless tongue-in-cheek manner and its distinctly British sensibility - as present in some scathingly hilarious dialogue. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, certainly, but if you're a fan of British (or just plan snarky) humour, and you enjoy movies that don't take themselves seriously, I can't recommend this one to you enough.

Clever rom-com, but Brittany is misplaced
I like Brittany Murphy a lot but this is not the right vehicle for her. She's not a fashionista and lacks the kind of poise it takes to walk comfortably in high heels. Almost all of the shots of her 'strutting' were cut to less than a step so you can see what she looks like but not how she moves. It was the same with the tango dance scene. Quick edits work as a disguise. I don't think the beehive hairdos work on her but if you like Brittany Murphy you should see this film. It won't make you dislike her and the film is mildly clever.

A handful of male actors performed well and gave the film most of its charm. The two female actors, besides Brittany, were junk. The two women, mother and daughter, trying to act likeably eccentric were annoying, shallow and superfluous to the story. They weren't even acceptable caricatures of likeably eccentric. Chain smoking cigarettes does not eccentric make.

I don't think it really counts as a spoiler to let people know that Gwyneth Paltrow and Orlando Bloom are on the screen for about 20 seconds. That was part of the cleverness of the film. They 'play' the parts of the 'happily-ever-after' couple in the Hollywood version of the movie we're watching as it is written by one of the characters in the movie.

Can't help that love/hate relationship with romantic comedies?
This movie is perfect! Wonderfully witty romantic comedy that constantly picks on the ridiculousness of the romantic comedy. Both a chick flick and a great guy comedy. And not what you'd expect from Brittany Murphy; a very welcome surprise.