However, no matter how overdrawn, uneven, melodramatic and unconventional the film may be, the patient can expect plenty of highlights within a perfectly decent romantic comedy-drama, or at least within the perfectly decent soundtrack of a romantic comedy-drama. The film has its strengths, but it has just as many flaws, or at least simple shortcomings that make the final product underwhelming, through all of its ambitions.
I suppose there is something refreshing about the maturity of this Hollywood rom-com-dram, but beyond that, little is unique about this film, which hits trope after trope, until finally falling into predictability that is thinned down by all of the aforementioned dragging, until you can't help but focus on the other issues in this film of limited surprises to soak up. Alas, no matter how hard Zwick works, he can't quite overcome shortcomings of a natural persuasion, which limit dramatic potential with near-fluffy inconsequentiality that is hard to disregard as rather lazy when accompanied by the usual tropes that plague dramatically minimal films of this type. Of course, it's not as though the dramatics aren't also fluffed up at times, by melodramatics that is seen in writing which has improbable characterization attributes, and in direction whose genuineness is challenged by cloying occasions that, while still somehow not as overwrought as certain sentimental storytelling touches within Edward Zwick's more dramatically weighty, maybe even generally superior efforts, cheese things up, ostensibly in an attempt to milk the dramatic core for all its worth. Tonal inconsistency, while not as big of an issue, is also an issue, for although the film never takes itself too seriously, neither does it take itself too lightly, and rather than finding a tonal balance, it struggles to keep focused on its bite and consequentiality as a comedy-drama. I don't really want to keep comparing this film to "About Last Night.", but it too flirts with a two-hour runtime that is hardly justified, achieved largely through meandering material that is at its most aggravating early on, when the film takes forever to incorporate Anne Hathaway's Maggie Murdock character, yet still shakes the focal consistency of the final product's body to an aimless degree. Hey, I didn't say that I mind seeing Anne Hathaway naked, I just said that you shouldn't expect this film to be nearly as good as "Brokeback Mountain", as it has issues that Hathaway naked can't completely get you to forget. It's easy to expect this film to be kind of lame, but once you see that R rating that reflects some guts, all the concerns wash away, or at least they do once you see what exactly got this film that R rating. I joke, but "About Last Night.", a 1980s romantic dramedy starring Rob Lowe and Demi Moore, is actually one of Zwick's less schmaltzy films, and ever since then, more than he's been building up his skills as an epic filmmaker, he's been building his experience as a cheesy filmmaker. It doesn't exactly help that this film is directed by Edward Zwick, but don't get too excited, folks, because this isn't another one of Zwick's cheesy epic melodramas, just one of this cheesy minimalist melodramas. You know, I'd say that this is more like the sequel to "About Last Night.", but it's hard to think about a film which features both Jake Gyllenhaal and a title dealing with timing, and not think of "The Day After Tomorrow". Looking at it that way, this is by no means a chick flick, and is more like an apology to people who wanted Hathaway naked more in "Brokeback Mountain", and don't really deserve an apology if they're looking to this film as a worthy follow-up to "Brokeback Mountain". It's Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway together again, ostensibly because Gyllenhaal and Hathaway compensating for the shortage on female nudity and what have you in "Brokeback Mountain".
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