A Smile Like Yours

The best that I can say about this film is that it was mildly amusing at times, and that it was an adequate time killer. Unfortunately, this film is also so annoying that I wanted to slap these characters around. This is the kind of film that is so sweet, it hurts your teeth. The intentions were good, I suppose, but things get awfully tiresome when the dialogue is SO nauseating. When the two leads aren't together on-screen, this really isn't bad at all, but be afraid during those frequent moments when the loving couple starts talking to one another.

Danny (Greg Kinnear), an engineer, is happily married to Jennifer (Lauren Holly). Jennifer owns a specialty gift shop and designs perfume, on the side, to sell at her store. The one thing the couple longs for is a child but, so far, they can't conceive. This is in spite of the many planned trysts that Jennifer arranges for the couple almost every week. Finally, Danny agrees to see an infertility specialist, which hurts his pride, and on top of that, the new female boss at work is after him! Will the couple be able stay together and have the family they long for? This slight but very sweet picture is fueled by the power of the two leads. They are good looking, charming, and funny. Joan Cusack does her usual wonderful work as Jennifer's dear friend, and Shirley MacLaine makes the most of her small role as Jennifer's mother. The scenes at the infertility clinic are priceless, as Danny tangles with one very determined nurse. Those who gravitate naturally to the romantic comedy aisle will find this one very fulfilling. All others, by contrast, may find it superfluous.

In San Francisco, Danny Robertson (Greg Kinnear) and his wife Jennifer (Lauren Holly) are happily married except they disagree on having a baby. Steve Harris (Jay Thomas) is his best friend and works for him on his construction site. Lindsay Hamilton (Jill Hennessy) is the hot new architect. Jennifer runs a perfume shop with her best friend Nancy Tellen (Joan Cusack).

Nothing is truly offensive but this is terribly flat like the couple's singing. It's meant to be funny but it's just mildly annoying. Neither Kinnear nor Holly are real comedians. They could be good if the comedic material is great. That's not this movie. The material is not close to being funny. Maybe if one of them is played by a good comedian. The jokes are barely jokes even if they're performed perfectly. This has the comedic roadmap but lacks the funny bone to write the jokes. It has the structure but not the stuffing to fill it out. It doesn't help that fertility is not automatically funny and the writing has nothing funny for it.

I thought the film was really funny and thought provoking. As my husband and I are going through the same sort of problems it made it light relief and took the seriousness out of it all. We were laughing out loud at the lengths she want to to get the first sample but possibly it was just nervousness. My husband thought the nurse would be enough to put anyone off giving a sperm sample!! It was on the same sort of lines as Maybe Baby written by Ben Elton although this is not as explicit. I thought the way it showed how committed you need to be to go through fertility investigations was well presented and just how they could push a couple apart. I suppose the moral of the story is that there is hope out there for everyone, just keep on trying!

This movie could have been so funny... really. It had a good premise, a couple trying to get pregnant, half of that couple is Greg Kinnear... how could it go wrong?? Well, for starters it was two hours long. The story-line was barely strong enough to sustain an hour and a half but no they had to torture us with an extra half hour most of which was owned by an endless musical montage right in the middle of the movie. Secondly, the casting. Greg Kinnear was strong and appealing despite the thin plot. Jay Mohr was alright as Jay Mohr goes. Joan Cusak was delightful, as she always is. Jill Hennessy was stunningly beautiful and just about the only actor to put any depth into her character at all. The glaring problem was Lauren Holly. She was just awful, and contrasted with the performance of Jill Hennessy, who, despite her shameless pursuit of a married man you actually begin to root for, Holly pales in comparison I found myself wondering why they hadn't cast Hennessy in Holly's role and vice versa. The movie would have been so much more easy to bear.