Fools Rush In

Whitebread businessman Whitman (Perry) has a one-night stand with Fuentes (Hayek) in Las Vegas, and finds out three months later that she’s pregnant with his child. The rest of the movie is spent trying to bridge the gap between their two cultures, their in-laws and their respective desires to live in different cities.

I consider the fact that I just saw this movie last night, and barely remember anything about it (and no, I wasn’t intoxicated), as a tell-tale sign of the film’s weak showing. The story is one that we’ve seen a thousand times before (opposites falling in love), the jokes are mostly retreads from earlier better comedies (as he’s trying to open the champagne bottle, he sees her in a negligee, and the cap of the champagne bursts open…hmmm…never seen that one before), and the acting is so-so. The one really funny joke is presented when Hayek tells Perry that the condom probably didn’t work the night that they had sex, and he says “What do you mean “didn’t work”? That’s their whole reason for being…to work !!”. I laughed.

Unfortunately for this comedy, that was one of the few times that I actually found myself laughing out loud, and that’s despite the film being set in one of my favourite cities in the world, Las Vegas! Hayek’s performance was weak at best, and Perry doesn’t really stretch much from his familiar TV role (give him a cellular phone, and yes, he’s a businessman?).

This film is actually based on a philosophical theory that I strongly believe in (“Your destiny has already been decided, you just have to read the signs”), and yet, even that bit of knowledge made little difference in the viewing of this sub-par romantic comedy. Mind you, if you want to hear some cool Elvis tunes, and / or enjoy either Perry or Hayek for any reason, this movie might just rev your engines. Otherwise, I suggest you avoid the “fool” tag stapled in its title, and re-rent the greatest romantic comedy of all time, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY… (10/10) another ten times.

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian