A Lot Like Love

Two cute characters have everything going for them, except a movie to be romantic in.

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, nudity and language; 107 minutes.

Opening today everywhere.

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Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet are such cute kids, charming and engaging separately and together, that somebody somewhere should write a good romantic comedy around them.

Until someone does, there's "A Lot Like Love," which is a lot like a romantic comedy. In fact, it's a lot like several better-known and better-made romantic comedies.

The movie begins in 1998, when fresh-out-of-college slacker Oliver (Kutcher) and punk-rock gal Emily (Peet) get on the same plane going from L.A. to New York. Oliver witnesses Emily dump her guitarist boyfriend at the airport - and is surprised when she comes on to him in the plane's lavatory. But that one-time sexual encounter turns into a daylong New York adventure, even though Emily decides early on the shy and serious Oliver isn't her type.

The movie jolts forward on the timeline several times, repeating the episodic nature of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (without that movie's unifying ceremonial structure). In 2001, Emily calls Oliver for a post-breakup New Year's Eve date, but she learns he's about to move from L.A. to San Francisco. They hook up again in 2003, and again in 2004, but each time something in Colin Patrick Lynch's infuriating script delays them from the inevitable happy ending.

When the movie just putters along aimlessly, director Nigel Cole ("Calendar Girls") smartly lets us just enjoy Kutcher and Peet grooving on each other. Their easygoing chemistry plays up both performers' strengths: Kutcher's smarter-than-he-looks abashedness and Peet's pretty-but-goofy gawkiness. There also are some funny moments from the overpopulated supporting cast, notably Kal Penn ("Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle") as Oliver's business partner and Kathryn Hahn ("Anchorman") as Emily's confidant.

In the final reel, the movie tries to be a movie, forcing things toward a "When Harry Met Sally . . ."-like resolution. That's when the undemanding charms of "A Lot Like Love" evaporate, and the movie feels a lot like a chore.

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