By Diana Lee LaBrecque

An unlikely cast comes together in Susannah Grant’s latest light-hearted drama, Catch and Release. Grant is best known for writing feminist movies such as Erin Brockovich and In Her Shoes. Her newest film centers on Gray Wheeler (Jennifer Garner), who is dealing with the death of her fiancé and about the kind of man he was. With emotional support from her alcoholic and uptight friends Sam and Dennis (played by Kevin Smith and Sam Jaeger respectively), they all deal with life after death.

Playing the bad-boy love interest is Deadwood’s Timothy Olyphant. He’s the stereotypical black sheep loner trying to rediscover himself in a crisis. Juliette Lewis (The Other Sister) appears part way through the movie as the dead fiancé’s ex-lover.

Though the story line is just as enjoyable as discount shoes, the consistency of the actors reminds the audience that somehow not everyone can pull off a romantic comedy. Garner’s performance is mediocre and unconvincing. It seems as if she really is confused by the mix of both drama and comedy in this film and never really picks one way to act, so she sticks with casual indifference. Quirky Kevin Smith is pretty reliable and predicable as the mourner who turns to drinking and drugs to escape. He can be confirmed as the comic relief whose one-liners break any hope of their being any sense of drama in a film dealing with death. Lewis plays a vegan masseuse, a character who becomes over-the-top and annoying after her first scene.

Character development and chemistry aside, the story provides a nice escape. It could be considered a date movie, but don’t look for true love to be seen on the screen-it’s more like the two main characters are saying: “I guess we can hook up cause you’re the best looking one here and I’m lonely.” On a side note, Garner should stick with her usual gigs of physical acting and stay clear from movies where she is required to show any physical emotions.

There’s no real connection between any of the characters, but they do a nice job of pretending not to notice the lack of talent in each scene. As an audience member, however, it’s hard to ignore the weak scenes and unmotivated dialogue.

The preview did a very accurate job of making this movie look conventional and bad but it’s still almost worth seeing if you can’t decide what run of the mill chick flick to see. If Susannah Grant could have found at least one actor whose had more than five years of real film acting then maybe her script could have had a chance. But what she got stuck with was a good-looking cast that doesn’t know how to fully develop characters and a predictable afternoon snack kind of script. (You don’t really need it but it’s not going to kill your dinner, either.)

GRADE: C+