Genre Guesstimation – Kate & Leopold (2001)

The idea behind this feature (Genre Guesstimation) is for me to watch a bunch of new movies (or ones that I haven’t seen many times) from the chosen monthly GG genre in order to expand my knowledge of movies within that particular genre.

Next month’s Genre has been chosen by Samantha Ellis of Musing of a Classic Film Addict and it is Romantic Films

“This could include any movie with a romantic pairing as the central focus of the plot, be it a comedy, drama, horror, or what have you.”

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of Jan by sending them to romanticsam@movierob.net

Try to think out of the box! Great choice Samantha!

Let’s see if I felt that this movie would be worthy of being in the company of my others favorite movies in the genre of Romantic Films.…

“Otis always told me love is a leap. Lamentably, I was never inspired to jump.” – Leopold

Number of Times Seen – 1 (9 Jan 2019)

Brief Synopsis – Due to a time travel mishap, a 19th century duke ends up in modern day New York.

My Take on it – This is a film that actually surprised me that I have never actually seen it before.

The theme and premise is extremely fun and they keep things so enjoyable throughout.

The story works even better due to the amazing chemistry between the two leads of Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman.

The premise is a great twist on the the genre of romantic comedies and the uniqueness of it all manages to help keep things interesting and intriguing throughout.

The best part is that they are able to show the various cultural and time temporal clashes that these characters experience.

This helps accentuate the comedic and romantics aspects of the story.

Liev Schreiber is perfectly cast as Ryan’s scientist ex-boyfriend who causes all of this to happen.

Being a fan of time travel stories, I was able to spot some very blatant time travel plot holes which take away slightly from it all because they could have found a way to explain these plot holes quite easily which would have made this story feel even more plausible.

Bottom Line – Really fun idea that works largely due to the amazing chemistry between Ryan and Jackman. The story is a great twist on the usual romantic comedy genre and its uniqueness helps keep things quite interesting. They do a great job of showing the cultural and time temporal clashes between the characters which adds to both the humor and romantic feeling of it all. Schreiber is perfectly cast as the scientist ex-boyfriend of Ryan who causes it all to happen. The film has a few plot holes that lead to paradoxes that probably should have nee explained a bit better because it would have helped make things feel even more plausible. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – When Meg Ryan knew that Hugh Jackman was going to spend his wedding anniversary alone, she phoned his wife to invite her to dinner. Reportedly, Jackman had to spend the day working. (From IMDB)

Genre Grandeur Worthy? – Comes quite close. The chemistry between Ryan and Jackman is great here and helps make the story feel so real.

Rating – Globe Worthy (8/10)