Romantic Comedy

Anna Faris is so adorably entertaining that she can say things like — oh, let's see, what can we print here — well, she can say very bad words, which she's often asked to do in films, in fall-down funny and completely forgivable ways. She's got a perpetually sunshiny face that looks as if it's always playing catch-up, there to put the punctuation mark on whatever naughty bit she's just uttered while making the most of that sling-back mouth, those eye-popping baby blues, the nose crinkles (who knew a nose could be played for such comic effect?

The makers of "New Year's Eve" could have reason to break out the bubbly early, as the star-laden film is expected to celebrate a No. 1 opening at the box office. The Garry Marshall-directed romantic comedy featuring such celebrities as Sarah Jessica Parker, Jessica Biel, Ashton Kutcher and Zac Efron, as well as veterans Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro, is expected to collect between $20 million and $25 million in North America this weekend, according to those who have seen pre-release audience surveys.

In Preston Sturges' great comedies, there was usually a hurricane glibness and wit. The movies raced along with a mad abandon that always proved to be under perfect control--full of deadly eloquence and deadpan sendups, wry little twists and cacophonous uproars, satire that lanced through the fatty tissue of wartime America like a sparkling scalpel.

Anna Faris is so adorably entertaining that she can say things like — oh, let's see, what can we print here — well, she can say very bad words, which she's often asked to do in films, in fall-down funny and completely forgivable ways. She's got a perpetually sunshiny face that looks as if it's always playing catch-up, there to put the punctuation mark on whatever naughty bit she's just uttered while making the most of that sling-back mouth, those eye-popping baby blues, the nose crinkles (who knew a nose could be played for such comic effect?

By burlesquing rap culture almost to the point of absurdity, the talented young writer-director-actor Rusty Cundieff made the mockumentary "Fear of a Black Hat" into one of the funnier movies of recent years. Cundieff again proves himself adept with the new romantic comedy "Sprung," which is genre-busting without being a pretentious pain.

For many people, Carole Lombard epitomizes the sexiness and savoir-faire of screwball romance. So, it's appropriate that she keeps popping up in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's romantic comedy series (at Bing Auditorium)--including twice this weekend. Lombard has the right look. A face that seems to have been peeled right off a Vogue cover: high cheekbones, frosty blond hair (dark at the roots) and flashing, hauteur-filled eyes.

Screenwriter Bob Shayne will moderate "Hollywood, Love and Laughter: The Romantic Comedy Then and Now," a 10-part UCLA Extension course that begins Jan. 6 at 7 p.m. The program will feature screenings of such romantic classics as "It Happened One Night," "His Girl Friday" and "Roman Holiday," and lectures by screenwriter-director James Brooks, critic Peter Rainer, producer-director Jerry Zucker and others. The fee for the course is $365. Information: (310) 825-9064.

"In Progress" has all the markings of the kind of romantic comedy that even intrepid theatergoers have seen thrice too often. But Shari Shattuck's smart play at the Matrix is a big cut above most this-one's-having-an-affair-with-that-one ditties. A round robin of attractions centered on a man-woman writing team, his wife and their fictional alter egos, "In Progress" is about the way most folks dog paddle around in the moral gray area of contemporary relationships.

"Touch Me" shrewdly begins like such a standard romantic comedy that it never occurs to you that it's heading in a wholly unexpected direction. A likable, good-looking young man, Adam (Michael Vartan), running a local health club owned by his hard-driving father (Stephen Macht), starts falling for a lovely young actress, Bridgette (Amanda Peet), who pays the rent working as a yoga instructor.

Kevin Smith's "Chasing Amy" is a little movie with big truths, a work of such fierce intelligence and emotional honesty that it blows away the competition when it comes to contemporary romantic comedy. It could be a career-maker for its three stars, Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams and Jason Lee, and for key supporting player Dwight Ewell. It also marks a strong comeback for Smith, who in the end credits of the film actually apologizes for his second feature, "Mallrats."

"Crazy, Stupid, Love" is one from the heart and one for the heart. This grand romantic gesture about grand romantic gestures conjures up the bittersweet magic of first loves, lasting loves, lost loves and all the loves in between. It may well restore your faith in the very possibility of love, to say nothing of romantic comedies. The sprawling cast that keeps hearts — theirs and yours — pitter-pattering is made up of a strong central core comprised of Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Jonah Bobo and Analeigh Tipton.

One of the reigning kings of comedy is hoping that he won't be upstaged by a pint-size teen idol this weekend at the box office. Adam Sandler's romantic comedy "Just Go With It" will face off against "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never," a 3-D documentary and concert movie that trails pop star Justin Bieber on his tour last summer. Not that it looks to be an even match-up. "Just Go With It," which also stars rom-com staple Jennifer Aniston and supermodel-turned-actress Brooklyn Decker, will probably beat out Bieber.

With the male-skewing "The Green Hornet" currently dominating the box office, Paramount Pictures is hoping to take the top spot with a movie aimed at young women. Paramount's Ashton Kutcher-Natalie Portman romantic comedy "No Strings Attached" is the only new film opening nationwide this weekend and is generating solid interest among females under 25, according to prerelease surveys. People who have seen the results of such surveys said "No Strings" should open to about $20 million, a good start given that it cost about $25 million to make.

BET's new series "Let's Stay Together" fits squarely within the formula of TV romantic comedies in many ways. The cast is young and attractive, every problem can be fixed in about 22 minutes, and there is lots and lots of talk about sex. But "Let's Stay Together" is instantly distinctive from the cookie-cutter rom-com. For one thing, the cast is all black, a rarity on prime-time TV. Half of a comedy block to be launched on Jan. 11, "Let's Stay Together" is a positive response to what observers of BET have been demanding for years: original scripted programming for its primarily African American audience.

In "Morning Glory," Rachel McAdams gives the kind of performance we go to the movies for. The rest of the film isn't always up to her level, but it does provide genial entertainment until it runs out of steam. A "Broadcast News"-type saga of life behind the camera on a struggling national morning news show based in Manhattan, "Morning Glory" starts beautifully and, though it doesn't quite go the distance, it certainly has the credentials to do so. The film's script is by Aline Brosh McKenna, who charted a similar young-woman-on-the-rise trajectory in "The Devil Wears Prada.

It's tough enough for a director to get a film's performers to connect on set, to bring an instant trust and intimacy to the story while still hitting their marks. But once the clothes come off, things really get tricky. In "Love & Other Drugs," the Nov. 24 romantic comedy about a charming pharmaceutical sales rep who falls for an artist afflicted by early onset Parkinson's disease, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway spend much of the film half-naked (or more). Accordingly, director Edward Zwick decided early in the rehearsal process that he'd have to get the stars comfortable with each other while they wore little-to-nothing.

"Alex & Emma" presents itself as a romantic comedy about a writer who's having problems producing what turns out to be an excellent book. In reality, it is a not particularly comic or romantic film about the writing of a truly tedious novel. This is double trouble with a vengeance.

The only thing punk about "Punks," a groundbreaking black gay male romantic comedy, is its cheesy trailer that suggests it's primarily a drag performance film. In fact, it is terrific entertainment, full of wit and energy, alternately hilarious and serious--and very sexy. What's more, there's nothing tacky about the film's drag numbers: They are briskly staged and feature dazzling costumes. Think of "Punks" as a gay male counterpart to "Waiting to Exhale."

When 10 people who don't really know each other show up at a dinner party, it's initially difficult to tell everyone apart. That's what happens at the start of "Change of Plans," a tasty French romantic comedy diversion with just a touch of seriousness thrown into the mix. Director Daniele Thompson, who co-wrote with her actor son Christopher, soon brings order out of chaos and pulls everyone and everything into focus. By the time this lightly entertaining look at life's emotional crises ends, even the characters you didn't think were sympathetic will have won you over.

Human foibles, in major and minor keys, are the chords that Woody Allen has been pounding for roughly 45 years. So it should come as no surprise that in his new frothy and fitful romantic black comedy, "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger," everyone must take a spin around the dance floor with the disillusionments, deceptions and dissatisfactions of life. Allen has put his latest morality and mortality tale in the hands of his usual complement of fine actors, who play interlocking couples each fraught in their own way. It starts with the dizzy delight of Gemma Jones as Helena, the matriarch in the meddling middle of it all. By the time we meet her, she's attempted suicide after being divorced by her wayward husband, Alfie (Anthony Hopkins)