Review of Ira & Abby (2006) by Jim H — 31 May 2011

A couple quickly falls in love and marries, and then they have to deal with the ramifications.

This film is remarkably uneven. It is often jaunty and farcical, but there are moments of true pathos that demand we take the action more seriously than we had been prepared for. There is also great truth in the moments when, for example, Seymour says, "It's impossible to ever truly know anybody." But immediately after we get a ridiculous scene involving everybody's therapists and people carrying on ad infinitum. The primary eponymous story offers some fairly charming moments, but the supporting stories often have little to do with the main action and only distract from the people we want to care about.

The performances by Chris Messina and Jennifer Westfeldt (especially Westfeldt) often make their outlandish characters believable, and by the end of the film, I wished I knew them better and got to spend more time in their presence.

Overall, there's a lot to like about Ira and Abby, but not much to like about Ira and Abby because the film as whole suffers from too much business and not enough substance.