Flick Picks 21: Chaos Theory

 Hello Streakers! Boog here, first to say that this is not a Guilty Pleasure post, despite the fact that it is a seventh post. The short answer, is that I've decided to change the format up a little, and give you Guilty Pleasures, and other niche reviews, as I happen across them. Today, I have a bit of treat, in quite possibly the most underrated romantic comedy of all time. Based on the title, I had thought I was going into a sci-fi thriller, or at least an action movie. I was pleasantly surprised. It only opened on 11 screens, and made less than $250,000. But it stars a vampire, a vampire hunter, a woman who has never done a single project with vampires ever, and has a couple of scenes with Dr. Elliot from Scrubs. SPOILERS! It's time for Chaos Theory. At first glance, you can why this film wouldn't do well. The director, other than a few TV episodes, a couple of music videos, and the Nick Cannon Disaster, I mean Underclassman, had no real credentials to prove he could direct a comedy. And the writer is probably best known for two films he wrote and directed: Breakin' All The Rules, (or the other movie Jamie Foxx made while filming Ray), and 1997s Commandments, which, as you can guess by the title, has a lot to do with a list of ten things from some book I think I read somewhere. Basically, the writer and director together hadn't really had a single hit between them, and they both had at least ten years of experience going into this. Which is of course, how they landed Stuart Townsend, Emily Mortimer, and Ryan freaking Reyonlds for the leads. More after the jump.

I was surprised too. Now, let me tell you why. Having never seen the film before, we start with what is obviously a wedding day. A young, pretty girl is asking her friend how her dress looks while some soft, upbeat country music plays in the background. We cut to the groom to be, who is having second thoughts, due to his wife to be revealing that, during a period of two weeks where the couple was separated, she spent one of those weeks in bed with another man. He is understandably shaken by this, and, trying to make sense of things, walks all the way to the hotel lobby, where he is stopped by the voice of the girl's father. He calls the groom over, we get some of the first jokes of the film, and we see Ryan Reynolds in some very good age makeup. I couldn't find any close-ups of him in the makeup, so the shot above with the soon to be groom will have to do. Then we get to the point of the story. You see, Reynold's character can see the cold feet and doubts, and so we go into flashback while he recounts the tale of his marriage, and it's ups and downs. This where the film starts going all out. So, we get the essentials established: Ryan Reynolds plays Frank Allen, I man obsessed with facts, figures, lists, and efficiency. His best friend, Buddy (That is his name), played by Stuart Townsend, who if you don't remember, was in Queen of the Damned, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, where he played the exact same immortal douchebag. Here, Buddy is the irresponsible ladies' man, and between them, the woman of their dreams, Susan, played by Emily Moritmer, who has been all over, notable performances for me include Shutter Island, Redbelt, and Lars and the Real Girl. They're all at a New Year's party in a hotel (the same hotel the current marriage is taking place in), and Susan decides she wants to marry, and chooses Reynold's character to be her husband. Seems kinda arbitrary, but what the hell. We then cut almost eight years into the future, where Frank and Susan have a daughter, Jesse, and Frank has managed to turn his OCD into a somewhat lucrative corporate seminar approach. We then get the basic plot of the film: Susan, in an attempt to shake up her husband, sets the clocks ten minutes back, but gets it in the wrong direction, which makes Frank late for the ferry he needs to get his big lecture.

Frank responds poorly to this, eventually finding himself in his hotel room with a nearly naked Sarah Chalke, i.e., Dr. Elliot from Scrubs. He gets a phone call from his wife, who is trying to apologize for the stuff from this morning, which makes a rather drunken Frank realize the problem with the situation, but instead of making Elliot leave, he grabs all his stuff and prepares to drive home, hours out of his way, by going around the giant body of water he ferried across earlier. It's night, so the ferry service is down. Right after leaving, Susan calls again, and Elliot answers, being a general bitch about things. Along the way, Frank is almost hit by another driver, who happens to be a pregnant woman. Frank, doing the right thing, takes the woman to the hospital, despite her just wanting to shove the baby off on him, and through a mistake from the hospital, Frank is listed as the father. Frank comes home to find Susan pissed because now apparently Frank is having an affair, and had a kid with another woman.
Frank, now desperate to prove his innocence, eventually finds a doc that can test his sperm or something (they don't actually say) with only a four or five day wait, but will most likely only give a vague statistic, and nothing that really help him out here. Well, as it turns out, there is nothing vague about his results. The revelation there causes the rest of the film, while yes parts of it are funny, to go into a deep character of this man, his life, his marriage, and what he goes through as he fights to save it, and ultimately, himself. It's touching, hilarious, and awesome. With Reynolds giving it everything he's got, Townsend, who I'll admit I don't like as an actor, giving a rather strong performance, and Mortimer is excellent as the anchor between them all. I'm not going into it much farther, because you really must see it. Yes, even the guys, even if they have to watch it alone. Reynolds is manly and funny enough he could carry a movie about glittery pink unicorn farts, and somehow make it out okay at the other end.

 Basically, this film is amazing. Once you think you're going to get a textbook romantic comedy, you get something completely different, at times dark, sad, depressing, but also happy, uplifting, and poignant. While this does seem to be an independent movie, rather than a major studio release, this film should be seen by everyone. EVERYONE. That means you, Ginger. This is right up your alley. Seriously. Okay, enough ranting. If you want to try something new, to just looking for the new fad in science named movies that happen to have little science in them whatsoever, you can't go wrong with a little Chaos Theory.