Romantics Nothing to Swoon Over

A group of 30ish Yale alumni reunite and suffer assorted life crises the night before a wedding in the Romantics, a melodrama that hasn't won the hearts of many critics. The ensemble cast includes Katie Holmes, Josh Duhamel, and Anna Paguin.

• This movie doesn't add much to the wedding-gathering genre, decides Gary Goldstein at the Los Angeles Times. This "sour spin on My Best Friend's Wedding—crossed with a pale dose of The Big Chill—proves unsatisfying not only because of its unlikable characters and often contrived conflicts but for the thoroughly implausible bride and groom at its core," he writes.

• Director/writer Galt Niederhoffer, filming his own novel, doesn't do enough with his talented cast, writes Simon Abrams at the New York Press, complaining that the movie is "filled with distracting, blousy pop songs and rote burnt-out character types."
• The Romantics of the title, with their "pontificating and awkward spouting of literary references that would never occur in real life," never seem all that romantic, writes Claudia Puig at USA Today, suggesting alternate titles The Spoiled Melodramatics or The Pretentious Ones.
• "Much of Niederhoffer's dialogue wrings false, or simply feels overwritten," writes Geoff Berkshire at Metromix, "but she also creates quite a few interesting moments, especially in the central love triangle." Katie Holmes, also executive producer, "proves she's completely capable of carrying a movie," he writes.

(More Romantics reviews stories.)