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Return to Me (2000)

It Pod to Be You: Episode 17 - Return to Me — Talk Film Society

DIRECTOR: Bonnie Hunt

CAST: David Duchovny, Minnie Driver, Carroll O’Connor, Bonnie Hunt, James Belushi, David Alan Grier, Robert Loggia, Joely Richardson

REVIEW:

Return to Me, from writer/director/co-star Bonnie Hunt, is an unabashedly old-fashioned romantic comedy-drama that might be a little too tame and sugary-sweet for cynics or viewers seeking something more “edgy” but will be a welcome counter-programming for viewers seeking something refreshingly warm and gentle and unabashedly “feel good”. It’s the kind of movie one could almost imagine (apart from some minor raunchy elements) being made in the 1950s starring the likes of Doris Day and Jimmy Stewart, but for those who appreciate kinder, gentler romantic comedy-dramas, it’s an enjoyable and pleasant morsel that goes down gently and easily, suffused with an almost impossible-to-dislike warmth and a dash of quirky but subdued comedy.

The opening scenes set-up parallel tracks that will eventually wind up on a collision course. Chicago architect Bob (David Duchovny) is married to Elizabeth (Joely Richardson), who works at the Lincoln Park Zoo and is devoted to a long-delayed pet project building a more expansive enclosure and better living conditions for her beloved resident gorilla. Meanwhile, Grace (Minnie Driver) is languishing in a hospital with her grandfather Marty (Carroll O’Connor) and best friend Megan (Bonnie Hunt) fretting over her, anxiously hoping for the heart transplant she’ll die without. Fate intervenes in bittersweet fashion when Grace gets a new heart…from Bob’s wife Elizabeth, who is killed in a car accident, leaving Bob devastated. Over a year later, Bob and Grace have a meet cute when the unsocial Bob grudgingly allows himself to be dragged out on a double date by his best friend Charlie (David Alan Grier), and they strike up an immediate connection, although both are unaware of the connection they already share.

Return to Me never attempts to do anything edgy or unpredictable (except perhaps for the twist of fate that sets up the very opening premise). Of course, one can see it coming a hundred miles away that somehow they eventually stumble across the truth of Grace’s heart, and of course that will throw up stumbling blocks in their budding romance, but the drama is kept mercifully low-key and subdued and avoids the tropes and cliches of many generic romantic comedy-dramas (there’s no contrived misunderstandings or love triangle drama) and suffused with a wry humor throughout. In a sense, its PG-ish innocence is crucial to the plot, because a more generic rom com would have them fall into bed, while here their innocent courtship and slow tentative steps toward intimacy allows the movie to draw out the apprehension over when Bob will find out about the scar on Grace’s chest. Writer-director Bonnie Hunt moves smoothly between light romance, low-key comedy, and the odd poignant moment (for an otherwise fluffy “feel good” movie, it doesn’t shy away from the opening scenes with a devastated Bob sobbing inconsolably on the floor, or later he and Elizabeth’s dog poignantly waiting by the door for a mistress who will never come home). The budding romance between Bob and Grace feels unforced and allowed to progress at a leisurely pace that feels natural given both characters’ hang-ups—his reluctance to wade back into the dating game, and her shyness—and Hunt infuses the proceedings with an offbeat sense of humor. There’s little quirky bits, like the oddly-named “O’Reilly’s Italian Restaurant” where half-Irish half-Italian Grace works, populated by a Greek chorus of sorts including her Irish grandfather Marty (Carroll O’Connor) and his Italian counterpart Angelo (Robert Loggia), who when they’re not playing busybody matchmakers spying on the young lovers through windows, are sitting in the back room playing poker and arguing over Frank Sinatra vs. Bing Crosby. There’s an unforced feel to the home life of Grace’s best friend Megan (Bonnie Hunt) and her husband Joe (James Belushi), who supply some comic relief without turning the characters into cartoons, with a relaxed domesticity that makes the characters feel real and not just like obligatory best friends/sidekicks who exist when the script needs them to (Hunt also supplies some amusingly quirky conversations with Driver: “hairy legs are your only link to reality”). There’s some minor quibbles—at times the movie is a little too cutesy and picturesque, it engages in cutesy plot devices like the way Elizabeth’s beloved gorilla seems to sense her heart still beating within Grace, some of the comic relief of David Alan Grier’s Charlie feels a little too cartoonish in comparison to the others, and one could argue the very premise is contrived—but the movie generates enough good will to easily coast over its minor limitations, at least for those who appreciate this kind of movie (those who don’t are in the wrong theater to begin with).

How To Mend A Broken Heart: David Duchovny in Return to Me – Pale Writer

David Duchovny and Minnie Driver, who at first glance might strike some as an odd couple, have an unforced chemistry that feels credible. It’s crucial to the proceedings that we care enough about Bob and Grace, and about their budding romance, to be apprehensive about when the truth will come out, and root for them to overcome the hurdle it throws up in their path, and Duchovny and Driver sell it. Duchovny’s best-known role as The X-Files’ Agent Mulder might be distracting for some of his fans from that show, but if one isn’t inordinately distracted by Agent Mulder associations, he proves he can be a capable romantic comedy-drama leading man who seems right at home navigating moments of grief, romance, and light humor. For her part, Minnie Driver continues to show herself as a delightfully effervescent screen presence and continue her streak of being immensely appealing love interest material (following her winning debut in 1995’s Circle of Friends and her Oscar-nominated supporting role in 1997’s Good Will Hunting). Driver is almost impossible to dislike in these kinds of roles, and she’s equally adept at low-key comedy and at projecting vulnerability. In supporting roles, the likes of Bonnie Hunt, James Belushi, and Robert Loggia provide some low-key comic relief, while Carroll O’Connor, sporting a thick Irish accent and far removed from Archie Bunker, is delightful as Grace’s doting grandfather. Joely Richardson doesn’t have much screentime, but manages to convey Elizabeth’s warmth and the love between she and Bob in the opening scenes, making us buy the void she leaves behind. If there’s a minor “off” note in the cast, it’s David Alan Grier, who’s just a notch too broad and cartoonish compared to the rest of the movie; there’s moments when Grier’s Charlie slips into the “annoying best friend” rom com shtick that Hunt’s Megan manages to avoid.

Return to Me will be met with derision by some critics and average moviegoers for its old-fashioned innocence, while others will find it refreshing for those very traits. For my part, I believe a movie should be judged on its own merits for how successfully it accomplishes what it’s trying to do, not for what it isn’t, and Return to Me fulfills its own modest aims with a delightful confection of romance, humor, and just a dash of melodrama, wrapped up in an almost-impossible-to-dislike feel good warmth. It might not be the most memorable or substantive movie of 2000, but it’s one of the most simply likable.

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