Review of The Trouble with Men and Women (2006) by Chads. — 24 Apr 2007

People are often funnier, wittier, and generally more enlightening in the movies than in real life. The trouble with "The Trouble with Men and Women" is that Matt(Joseph McFadden) and his friends are too much like your average blokes and lasses you may encounter up close or from afar in some social setting.

They're bloody boring. Until Matt meets Veronique(Karine Adrover) on the subway, it's one repetitive scene after another about how he misses Karen(Christine Tremarco), who left him and the U.

K. for New York(and we can see why, he's bloody boring). At least Veronique livens things up by having a different accent than her new peer group. She's French. "The Trouble with Men and Women" isn't particularly cinematic either.

Basically, it's just point the camera at the actors. In an attempt to be lyrical, the filmmaker uses a lot of soft focused-slow motion to no particular advantage. When Karen leaves Matt, he makes the intrepid move of poaching his best friend's girl.

But Vinnie(Matthew Delamare) is such an obvious prick, you wonder why Matt doesn't point out his best mate's careless disregard for Susie(Kate Ashfield) as the unfaithful hypocrite reads him the riot act about the sanctity of friendship.

"The Trouble with Men and Women" has really nothing fresh or interesting thing to say about relationships, but Matt kind of grows on you; as does Susie, so you hope those two boring singles finally get together and put us out of our torpid ambivalence towards this unremarkable indie from the United Kingdom.