Return To Me (2000)
The Cast
David Duchovny .... Bob Rueland
Minnie Driver .... Grace Briggs
Carroll O'Connor .... Marty O'Reilly
Robert Loggia .... Angelo Pardipillo
Bonnie Hunt .... Megan Dayton
David Alan Grier .... Charlie Johnson
Joely Richardson .... Elizabeth Rueland
James Belushi .... Joe Dayton
Written & directed by one of my favourite comediennes (I have no idea if that's spelled right), Bonnie Hunt, Return To Me is about.. well, if you hover your little mouse cursor over the picture at the top, you'll pretty much get the movie summed up succinctly for you. That was nice of me to do that for you, wouldn't you say? That's 'cause I'm a helluva guy, just like Bob Rueland (Duchovny).
You see, Bob's wife, Elizabeth (Richardson) has just died in a horrible car accident. This is like Jersey Girl, I'm not ruining anything at all here. The night of Elizabeth's untimely demise, poor Grace (Driver) finally gets her heart transplant. Coincidence? Most assuredly not, this is a pretty formulaic rom-com after all.
You know, pretty much everything is spelled out for you in this movie. From the title of the freaking movie, you can pretty much surmise what's going to happen. So the question is, when there's no mystery to how a movie is going to turn out, are you still entertained & / or touched by what happens in the middle?
Duchovny's got that kinda aw shucks quality to his performance, giving off that everyman vibe that you look for in a less-than-dashing leading man. Driver fulfills her role as the sweet & charming leading lady, much like she did in Grosse Pointe Blank. Then you've got your cast of wacky characters, most of them being senior citizens in this movie. You've got your male & female sidekicks, the male being kind of an idiot, the woman being sage-like & sarcastically funny.
So despite it's overwhelmingly formulaic rom-comness, is Return To Me a good movie? Hey, I LOL'd a few times, & that doesn't happen too often when watching a movie by myself. That's good enough for entertainment for me. Plus, I love me some Bonnie Hunt, she's fantastic & funny. Everyone's passable, & the story was still good. A better than average movie, & that's pretty much all I can say about that. 3.5 outta 5.
Roger Ebert's review