The Bachelor

Chris O'Donnell has a certain appeal. For me, it's his facial expressions. He is the master at portraying reactions by a mild mannered "everyman" overwhelmed by immediate circumstances.

Rene Zellwegger was a mildly cute Texas girl-next-door several years before this one. In this one, set in San Francisco, her Texas accent and tomboyish outrage is not appealing.But she is supposed to be a fed-up girlfriend, so I guess she does it well.

I envied the main character. How great would it be to look like him, have a guaranteed easy job for life at a pool table manufacturer in San Francisco, owned by his own family, and then inherit a bunch of money? I've met guys like that, who cruise along in "auto-pilot" with their looks, casual demeanor, and money.

The sidekick character played by Artie Lang was so over-the-top obnoxious! I couldn't take it. That's his real life personality, so he wasn't acting. It was also excruciating to see classic actors like Ed Asner and Hal Holbrook play old fools in a romantic comedy for young people. It seemed degrading.

I loved the imagery of single men being lassoed by a cowboy rope as symbolic of being trapped by the need to marry.

I also thought the famous thousand brides scene was well done. I particularly liked the initial part of it at the church, when Chris is answering their questions about his preferences.

Brooke Shields looks old and hard. Don't expect much, although she played her role well.

I thought there was just the right amount of character development. You don't want too much in a RomCom. If you can stand Artie Lang,give this picture a viewing on a rainy day.

The sight of an army of brides in white chasing a man down the streets is a very unusual and funny one. It was especially funny the first time around, with Buster Keaton. In "Seven Chances" (1925) old stone face played a man who had been left an inheritance of a large sum of money ($7 million)under the condition that he get married before his next birthday...which happens to be the following day. His efforts to find a willing bride results in ridicule, a car wreck, etc. He finally puts an ad in the paper, telling the circumstances, and asking for the applying bride to meet him at the church. At least a thousand women ranging from fat, small, young, old, beautiful, downright misshapen arrive at the church. Well, the same exact thing happens in this movie "The Bachelor" (though inflation has turned $7 Million into $100 million), only I gotta say the Keaton version is still the original and unsurpassed (and unsurpassable) masterpiece. I actually couldn't believe they named it "The Bachelor", it's a very boring title.

Hundreds of women in wedding dresses and sneakers chasing Chris O'Donnell through the streets is ridiculous, however the movie is worth seeing just for Brooke Shields' performance as Buckley. Every time her left eye started to twitch during the wedding ceremony I fell off my chair. A great comic turn.

I thought this movie was OK. Chris O'Donnell and Renee Zellweger turn in OK performances. I think the language was too strong for a PG-13 film, and the film really lost steam in the last half hour or so. I liked the character of the priest, and Brooke Shields has an amusing cameo here. But the film on the whole isn't very good, and is forgettable. I think the premise was good and the execution was poor.

In Robert Altman's The Player, studio executives demonstrate how a film idea can turn from one person's artistic vision into a shallow appeal to the masses. When I watch a film like The Bachelor, I often wonder what went on when that film was pitched.

Chris O'Donnell is perfectly cast as the likeable hunk who can't quite bring himself to commit to marriage. Life with girlfriend Anne is perfect because she doesn't seem to have any desire to take that extra step either. The day that she does start to think about 'the future' things take a nasty turn.

O'Donnell as Jimmy struggles through a proposal, simply because his peers tell him he must. Anne turns him down, of course, because his intentions are not honorable.

The plot thickens when Jimmy's ornery grandfather dies and leaves a 100 million dollar fortune to Jimmy, the only surviving relative. The catch is that our hero can only collect the money if he is married by his 30th birthday, which just happens to be in one day. A daring move, one of the lawyers utters something about this being 'Brewster's Millions.' A clever line, obviously written by someone brave enough to admit that this plot is a total rip off.

With the aid of his best friend, a few lawyers and a stoic priest (played by James Cromwell), he sets about trying to win the heart of Anne. When that doesn't succeed, Jimmy goes through the list of old girlfriends, most of whom are personality challenged, and some of whom do not remember him fondly.

Anyone with a weak heart might melt at the image of O'Donnell running through the streets of San Francisco with a bouquet of flowers, others would probably be wise just to pass. O'Donnell and Zellweger play well in this film, but like most cardboard comedies, there isn't much for the actors to do.

One might spot an attempt a some black humor, in the same vein as better films like Heathers and Election, but it failures to even come close to those. The Bachelor presents an opening thesis using wild mustangs to describe men. As each of his friends gets hitched, we see them running along side a herd of these horses, a lasso about to snag them. This joke is mildly clever, but sadly it is also the best thing about the film.