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Head Over Heels (2001)
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Genre: |
Romantic Comedy |
Director: |
Mark S. Waters
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Rating: |
PG-13 |
Running Time: |
87 Minutes |
Release Date: |
February 2, 2001 |
Official Website: |
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Movie Trailer: |
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Discuss and vote: |
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Cast: |
Monica Potter
Freddie Prinze Jr.
Shalom Harlow
Ivana Milicevic
Sarah O'Hare
Tomiko Fraser
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Pickup Line: Fell Flat In Its Face!
Quickie: A naïve New Yorker who falls in love too easily has her hopes dashed once again when she witnesses yet another potential Mr. Right whack a blond with a baseball bat. That's what she gets for spying on him from her apartment in the first place! And that's what she gets for looking for love in New York!
The Long Review:
The previews for "Head Over Heels" look promising, don't they? You got Monica Potter of tear-jerker "Con-Air" fame, Freddie Prinze, Jr., the hottest heartthrob since Leonardo whatshisface, and 4 supermodels all strutting their stuff. Does the flick deliver? Um…no…unless 357 wardfobe changes count.
"Head Over Heels" tells the story of Amanda Pierce, a painting restorer who works for the New York Metropolitan Museum. And her story is a sad one. She falls in love very easily with charming losers who always end up breaking her already worn-out heart. And then she moves into a posh apartment that she shares with 4 models (Shalom Harlow, Ivana Milicevic, SarahO'Hare, and Tomiko Fraser). And then she meets Jim Winston (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), ad executive extraordinaire and she gets weeks in the knees (partly because the dog he's watching for a neighbour tries to hump her) and it's love at first sight. Alas, the romance becomes doomed from the start when Amanda witnesses Jim hit a blond with a baseball bat…dead. Oh, did we mention that aside from 4 walking fashion magazines, Amanda's apartment also comes with a perfect view of Jim's apartment? Well, it does. And that's how she witnessed Mr. Not-So-Right hit the blond with a baseball bat. See? Spying is bad for your love life. Anyhoo, off Amanda goes to investigate Mr. Psycho Killer and date him at the same time. Go figure. And she wonders why she keeps getting her heart broken. D-uh.
"Head Over Heels" is a movie with a simplistic, hole-filled, awkward plot. The writers try so hard to make the story laden with suspense but the only thing they accomplish is to make it laughable. True, the plot is not too predictable...but that's because you just don't expect them to come up with the crap (pardon my French) that they serve. Roger Ebert has about the same opinion...almost. The thing is, he actually found a whole fifteen minutes of the movie funny. We found only about 30 seconds of it vaguely amusing. He says, ""Head Over Heels" opens with 15 funny minutes and then goes dead in the water. It's like they sent home the first team of screenwriters and brought in Beavis and Butt-Head." To which we say: Hey! Don't insult Beavis and Butthead like that!
And the acting! Monica Potter has just about as much presence as a fly stuck on the corner of the theatre screen. She is so boring!! She just can't make you like her; therefore, you don't really give a rat's derriere what happens to her character. Her lack of charisma is only magnified by the 4 models that surround her in practically every scene. And surprisingly, these models are good. They are funny. Adorable. The few funny scenes in this movie are made possible by this fabulous foursome. Sure, they are portrayed as majorly shallow bimbos but sheesh, compared to Monica Potter's performance, theirs is worthy of an Oscar.
As for Freddie Prinze, Jr...well, he does the usual. Smile here. Nod there. Flash a sultry look here and there. What can we say? He's got the part of ladies' man down pat. Unfortunately, even he can't redeem the movie. Even he can't convince us that there's real chemistry between him and his mannequin of a leading lady. Talk about unconvincing.
"Head Over Heels" is a no-brainer, ho-hum of a movie. Even though it's only 87 minutes long, it feels like an epic. It drags its audiences through a series of mishaps, mistakes, and misunderstandings. We're head over heels, alright. Head over heels that we actually spent money to see it.
In Two Minutes:
Did you know?
- If Monica Potter looks a tad bit familiar, it's because she played patient (and mute) wife to Nicolas Cage's timid convict in "Con-Air." We think she's better off mute.
- Okay, okay. At least some people have a thing for Monica Potter. Counting Crows' "Mrs.Potter's Lullaby" was written about her.
- This is Freddie Prinze, Jr.'s second project with director Mark S. Waters. Waters directed Prinze, Jr. in "The House of Yes," a film that debuted in the Sundance Film Festival. For more on Freddie Prinze, Jr., check out our feature article on Mr. Leading Man himself here.
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