Catch and Release, the directorial debut of Erin Brokovich screenwriter Susannah Grant, opened last week, to $7.6 million, and a fifth place weekend slotting. Starring Jennifer Garner, the movie unfolds in a rustic state of monotonously pitched pining, and centers around Gray Wheeler, who after the sudden death of her fiancé, seeks solace in the company of his ex-roommates (Kevin Smith and Sam Jaeger).
As more details about her boyfriend emerge — information involving a
healthy secret bank account, a Los Angeles massage therapist (Juliette
Lewis) and her son — Gray comes to see new sides of the man she thought she
knew, and at the same time finds herself drawn to his childhood pal Fritz
(Timothy Olyphant).

You feel trace elements of a
fuller ensemble character study about grief, but the characters herein — the
inveterate playboy with the hardened heart, the stoic secret crush, the ditzy single
mother — are reduced to thinly sketched functionaries, and behavioral
rationalizations big and small consistently feel a step off.
For the full review, from CityBeat, click here and scroll down.