'Til There Was You

Bad romantic comedies with sappy characters aren't always without merit, since we cynics can at least use them to further our conviction that love isn't worth the trouble. But this bad romantic comedy is merely bad: at once hysterically unfunny and pretentiously sullen, with enough inept non sequiturs to rival an Ed Wood movie. The heroine seems to be Gwen (Jeanne Tripplehorn), a yuppie ghostwriter who cries during Brief Encounter and fears becoming an old maid. Actually, it's hard to locate the protagonist in a film so top-heavy with exposition that its first half-hour is spent introducing countless new romantics.

Gwen's long-awaited "piercing moment of revelation" doesn't come via the cute schoolteacher (Ken Olin) whom she discovers kissing a young male student after class. (How humiliating for her!) Neither does she find it with the cute motorist whom she rear-ends and then charms while exchanging insurance info; or with the cute city councilman who shows his true colors when advocating the demolition of an old romantic apartment complex. Finally she meets a cute architect (Dylan McDermott) who shares her soft spot for old romantic apartment complexes, and it's love at first sight. 'Til There Was You is therefore a film about Fate, though I couldn't help wishing for a volcano or flood to deliver true poetic justice. At the Opera House, Showcase, and Tri-Boro cinemas.

-- Rob Nelson