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A Lot Like Love
Touchstone Pictures


7.0

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 32 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for sexual content, nudity and language

Starring Amanda Peet, Ashton Kutcher, Taryn Manning, Aimee Garcia, Lee Garlington, Birdie M. Hale, Tyrone Giordano, and Melissa van der Schyff

It takes some people years to fall in love at first sight. A Lot Like Love is a romantic comedy about destiny, connection and the frequently fuzzy line between chance and friendships and happily ever after. (Touchstone Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Drama \| Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Colin Patrick Lynch
DIRECTED BY:	Nigel Cole
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 23, 2005 Video: August 23, 2005 Theatrical: April 22, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	107 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Dallas Observer Melissa Levine

An entertainment success, a triple threat of fresh writing, inspired directing, and, yes, good acting.

Variety Brian Lowry

In essence, British director Nigel Cole has brought a breezy arthouse sensibility to this tale of fated love.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Here's a pleasant little romantic comedy that doesn't try too hard and has the virtue of doing a few things differently.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Survives its surface annoyances because Lynch's script also has ambition, heart and something to say other than love conquers all.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Though I liked Love's unhurried pace and oddball digressions, its obligatory romantic-comedy resolution seemed too schematic for what had preceded it.

USA Today Mike Clark

The chuckles here come from the leads' interplay, crying on each other's shoulders and cheering each other up.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

While it's certainly too derivative to be a great movie, it's too goodhearted and modest in its aspirations to be denied.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

If the script isn't as well-structured as it could be, the dialogue is refreshingly natural. Kutcher is surprisingly well cast as the awkward, somewhat dorky Oliver, and Peet is charming and charismatic without being cloying or artificial.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Kutcher and Peet are a low-wattage pair, with little of the verbal riffing that counts as seduction in most romantic comedies, but they have real chemistry together, and A Lot Like Love happily indulges their silly, juvenile one-upmanship.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Peet is triumphant as the beguiling object of desire with wounded-bird eyes and devilish smile -- sexy and tart, then, in the space of a breath, totally, tenderly tragic. Like Oliver, we'd happily follow her anywhere.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It is charming and at times disarmingly surprising.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Isn't half bad and every so often is pretty good, filled with real sentiment, worked-through performances and a story textured enough to sometimes feel a lot like life.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

This is a hand-me-(dumbed)-down chick flick that is counting on Kutcher's tabloid popularity and Peet's unmistakable though here underutilized talents to cover up for rote characterizations, tired plot devices and a general lack of inspiration.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

In A Lot Like Love, there is no doubt - nor suspense, nor depth.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The big screen doesn't seem to like Kutcher much, or even to GET him, whatever there is to get.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

An unfortunate casting decision, however, comes close to sabotaging a witty script.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Too often, the script collapses into what feels like improvisation, in which the characters find a kind of common ground: Infantilism.

TV Guide Angel Cohn

Enjoyable and funny enough.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A Lot Like Love is a lot like a romantic comedy, except that all that's keeping these two kids apart is the trivially insufferable movie they're in.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

As the film stopped counting back in years and switched to months, I panicked that it would slog on to weeks, hours and seconds before reaching its inevitable end. I was wrong. About A Lot Like Love leaving you wanting a lot less, I am right.

Village Voice Ben Kenigsberg

Interjections from perennial second bananas Kathryn Hahn (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) and Kal Penn (winning even when not conjuring vivified bags of pot) generate the only sparks.

Empire Liz Beardsworth

Peet works hard with the slight material and there are some cutely kooky moments.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Say this for A Lot Like Love: It isn't one of those impossibly witty romantic comedies.

Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt

A poor man's "When Harry Met Sally."

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

A Lot Like Love is, well, a lot like many other movies. It's also a lot like having your eyeballs seared by a propane flame -- in a bad way.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

The whole production is simply as mediocre and half-baked as Hollywood gets.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

This interminable contest between two narcissists, stretched out over many miles and years, is supposed to have something to do with romance.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

It starts with a bang and ends with a whimper.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

What's the point of the picture, except to allow Kutcher fans occasional peeks at acting talent he usually keeps hidden?

Boston Globe Ty Burr

''Love" doesn't have a plot so much as it has a concept, scribbled in crayon.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

To call A Lot like Love dead in the water is an insult to water.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 32 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Gino M. gave it a3:
These post-1998 witty romantic comedies seem to follow a familiar ploy in hopes to stand out in a sea of sameness. That ploy is a simple attempt identifying with young people that think this sort of deliberately obtuse wit exists in real life and is plausible to apply their own lives. The reality is that such phantasmagorical wit-ridden romance doesn't define a damn thing about young people in society however much those who identify with this prototypical movie would like to think so. I call this The Garden State Complex, and in addition to sounding like a nice Emo band, this complex seems to be quite widspread.

R. G. gave it a2:
We all know where this movie will go from start to beginning and there are some cool ideas in the movie that are not executed well. If you want to see how a photographer's work is captured in a love story and moments of realizations (watch Shopgirl). It's your typical movie using montages with your popular ballads of the year. Ashton Kutcher can't translate into a descent actor and Pete carries the movie but isn't always convincing. There is no heart or charm in the movie, just cheap scenes with crap music.

Corinna W. gave it a7:
I actually thought it was really good-but not great. Predictable though it was, it still managed to be charming and Peet and Kutcher had chemistry. However, at the beginning Peet has so much life and sparkle to her which she seems to have lost the next time they meet, along with her astonishing beauty.

Felix Q. gave it a3:
Being one of those people who can sit back and enjoy a predictable, popcorn type movie without much worrying about plot and just enjoying it for what it is, I hated this one. Something about this movie just rubbed me the wrong way- with sandpaper. It's not a terrible concept (althought it does test your patience) and the writing is passable. It could've been wittier, it could've used a few more 'smart' laughs. Actually, I think the thing that put me off this one is the casting (and even the writing) of the two main characters. Ashton Kutcher I can handle- Just Married was nice, I actually like him paired with Brittany Murphy. He seems to be slowly heading for the dreaded funk that so many romantic/comedy lead men have fallen into- he's playing the same character in every movie. Steve Martin did this for years, but he had the advantage of some of the best scripts and characters ever created in the genre. Somehow, Ashton's Kelso character in That 70's Show had more definition than this role. But Amanda Peet grinds on my nerves like no one else can. There's an inherent smarm factor in her that makes her unstomachable to me, and it overpowers the movie itself. Movies that she has been in that I've liked, I've liked in spite of her because the quality of the rest of the cast and the script have pulled it up. (Something's gotta Give, Igby Goes Down) This movie had none of that charm, but could've worked with two leads who actually had some chemistry and a few re-writes by someone like Kevin Smith.

Pat C. gave it a7:
Romantic comedy with mostly well-written dialogue interspersed with a few lines that makes one cringe. Amanda Peet is deliciously authentic as the both bubbly and headstrong deubtante-in-denial. Good underlying theme: Long-term relationships are not for the faint-hearted.

Vijay S. gave it a9:
It's a nice love story.

Chad S. gave it a7:
"A Lot Like Love" is Amanda Peet's demo reel. She's ready for a plum role in a serious film like Jennifer Connelly was when Ron Howard tapped her for "A Beautiful Mind". Larry Brown took the L.A. Clippers to the playoffs, and Peet challenges a much maligned actor, synonymous with Freddie Prinze Jr., and helps him give a performance that transcends our notion that he's nothing more than a male model with an acting coach. In what might be the best cell-phone scene to date in any movie, Ashton Kutcher helps alleviate Emily's anguish over her dead mother's birthday by telling a tasteless joke near the tombstone. This is the moment in which both parties should realize they were meant to be together. However, the screenwriter isn't done with postponing the inevitable. But even at its more hackneyed (yet another wedding crashing scene like the one in "The Graduate"), "A Lot Like Love" is bailed out by a very funny line.

A Lot Like Love Touchstone Pictures

A Lot Like Love
Touchstone Pictures