Capsule reviews of this week's new films

(AP)
Updated: 2007-01-27 08:55

Capsule reviews of films opening this week:

"Catch and Release" — Writer Susannah Grant, directing here for the first time, seems to be aiming for the same kind of meaty chick flick she's come up with before in "28 Days," "Erin Brockovich" and "In Her Shoes." Instead this fish-themed romance flops wildly all over the place — from heavy poignant moments to slapsticky comedy, with a healthy dose of soapy melodrama in between. What's worse is that her characters sound like people saying things that were written for them, not real people behaving organically, believably. Jennifer Garner stars as a young woman whose fiance dies in a boating accident on the eve of their wedding. She's forced to move in to his house with his roommates, played by Kevin Smith and Sam Jaeger, where she learns all kinds of horrible things about the man she loved that she never knew before — which makes her realize she never really knew him, or herself. Garner's character also falls in love with one of the dead fiance's buddies, played by Timothy Olyphant, which seems implausible and kind of crass. And, if you'll pardon the pun, a little fishy. PG-13 for sexual content, language and some drug use. 111 min. One and a half stars out of four.