He basically becomes a different person by the end of the movie, such that he is, at that point, a good match for Andie MacDowell’s character.

It is a teacake.

You summed it up.

I didn’t like how much the book stacked the deck—basically, Elena was awful, and the book never let us forget it. In a nutshell: suburban white wealthy moms, dontchahatem?

Based on his interview with Marc Maron he doesn’t sound like the best-adjusted guy.

Or ... they grow up thinking if they try at things and fail they will show they aren’t that smart after all, so they don’t try.

I wish I had done that.

no

Romcoms are presumably pretty cheap to make, too.

Good point, too many upbeat movies manufacture a misunderstanding or moment of self-doubt just to tick that third-act box and if it’s not earned, it can really ruin the story.

Pshaw. There’s no way she would have gone on to a huge action movie career like Bruce Willis, since she was a woman (and over 30), but she had a successful sitcom after Moonlighting and tons of acting work following that. She is a far, far more professionally successful person than most of us, and also raised 3 kids. (…

I had to sound it out in my head, but yes, it scans!  Well done.

Since you took the time to write a long response, I want to ask you in return to please think about your “family history.” Who framed the narrative that way? Whose version of the story are you taking as gospel? I don’t know if this is your paternal or maternal grandmother, but let’s just say for the purposes of…

Botox mistakes and hairstyle mistakes. It’s unfortunate because he’s doing good work and also happens to be naturally good-looking.

Yeah, a 17-y-0 “stalking and entrapping” an adult is not a thing.  Adults have a responsibility to behave like fucking adults.  Seventeen year olds don’t, because they are still legally children, and as a practical matter they have low impulse control and their brains aren’t yet fully formed.  That’s why there are…

Vanessa Bayer is so talented, I want her to get lots of good roles.

Yeah, this is the problem. I was rooting for him because his youngest-cast-member shtick had some limited utility for a while, and because of his sad personal history.  But it’s just not enough to build an adult career out of.  If he had a little more energy he could maybe pivot in more of a Spalding Gray direction,…

Ah, but those “garden variety” types own the problem now.

I feel like you’re kind of melding Danny (good looking) and Josh (cast member in the first few seasons, when The Girly Show transitioned into TGS). To be fair, they are both white.

The first couple were really funny but yeah, seriously diminishing returns at this point.