Snipper: A Lot Like Love (‘ALLL’)

ALLL: A sentimental roller-coaster ride for the Gen-X

Snip-In:
Is this movie so great to write about? – Not actually. But it’s nice though. I remember watching the promos while I was in LA around 2005 and Ashton Kutcher has already an heartthrob around the world then. Well, while browsing through my earlier posts, I realized I haven’t written a movie review for last ~5 months. The last article I could post was in April’11 after India’s win in Cricket ODI World Cup. Is it to do with my schedule? – Partly yes! So for some odd reasons I got up early on Sunday morning (when I am needing a lot of rest…could be sleeping disorder!) and thought of writing on this movie, as it’s still fresh as watched just the earlier night. I was about to be writing on ZNMD and another book over last several weeks / months, but still couldn’t get time to do so. Ok, even though ‘ALLL’ is not great, it’s nice and notable for fresh treatment and even fresher performances. And off course the element of LA and SFO, one can get to see in it. The review is going to be shorter. Have to catch up on things, lined up for Sunday
It’s a story of gen-x folks taking place in the US in the dot.com era (2000 something). Ashton Kutcher (Oliver) is fresh out of college and has dreams to make it big in life before he hits 30, and to settle with a steady marriage. He is highly career oriented, just wants to focus on work, and doesn’t even have a girlfriend. Amanda Pitt (Emily) is a tomboyish, future-forward person (read - liberal and open minded) with apparently no ambitions, dreams like Oliver, and is confused about relations - getting in and out of those regularly. They happen to meet (?) in a flight while traveling to NYC from LA, but their first acquaintance almost remains anonymous / mysterious. Oliver gets drawn towards Emily because of her driven nature. The story moves along for next 7 years, where both of them are on separate paths, but get bumped onto each other, while going through sensitive / moving situations in their individual lives.
It’s a light romantic comedy, thankfully with no - action, melodrama and fleet of characters. Very effective editing and direction. Some of the scenes are really very funny and give appealing creativity / originality to the movie.

Snip-Out:
Probably not much over here. May be a romantic song…sounds crazy for a Hollywood movie, right? But you’ll get to know why I missed that in the below text.

Snip-O-Meter:
Ashton Kutcher more than fits the bill as young Oliver, a budding entrepreneur, a level-headed person and a patient lover. So is Amanda Pitt, as she portrays various traits of the character beautifully / convincingly. But the best part is, while watching the initial sequences of the film I could realize that Bollywood’s ‘Jab We Met’ (JWM) is largely based on this plot. Though ‘JWM’ is very nicely and tightly blended with India, locally and culturally(Mumbai and Himachal Pradesh), it’s not just influenced, but has got the soul of ‘ALLL’ to the extent that Shahid’s and Kareena’s mannerisms are also based on Oliver and Emily’s. Shahid apparently just copies Oliver (gestures, walk etc.), Kareena has put her own to the character of ‘Geet’. Kareena’s light make-up, just highlighting her eyes is picked up from Amenda’s. The title ‘Jab we Met’ also is gathered from one of the dialogues (….when we met…) between Amenda and her friend (Michelle) towards the end of the movie. I watched ‘JWM’ a few years back and is not my personal favorite (barring a few things, songs). The swiftness with which the roller-coaster ride for Oliver and Amanda gets over in ‘ALLL’, is something which is missing in JWM as it’s dragged a lot - It can be a brave statement as for many of them ‘JWM’ is a milestone movie.
Coming back to ‘ALLL’. It’s not great, but a must watch at least for Ashton, Amanda and for getting realization of why we still largely follow Hollywood and why it’s still not the other way round. And even if you don’t want to be so analytical, just sit back, relax and watch this on Sunday evening(s).