Love and Mary
Year: 2008
Director: Elizabeth Harrison
Stars: Lauren German, Gabriel Mann, Whitney Able
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Studio: MTI Home Video
Running Time: 104 Mins
Official Website: http://www.loveandmary.com/
Love and Mary is about a pastry chef, Mary, who is trying to find a way to save her bakery from her landlord. With only four day to pay off her debt, she decides to go bac
k home and see her parents with her fiancé in order to get their engagement gift, which will be able to pay off her debt. But there’s a problem with that plan, her fiancé is suffering from an allergy attack and unable to go. With that happening to her fiancé, she decides to bail out of jail, to have her fiance’s identical twin brother, Jake, to take his place. Soon a bond between the two happens and Mary is forced with a choice, her fiancé and his identical twin brother.
Love and Mary is one of those films that didn’t completely work for me. Elizabeth Harrison’s direction of the film wasn’t that bad. She does a good job not making any of the sets cheesy and 
some of the camera work here was good. She does a very good job directing the actors, as this make it a watchable film for me, as the screenplay wasn’t that great, which I’ll talk about in a second. I liked how Harrison made sure that the chemistry between the actors was good. This really helped me bare through the film’s major problem. She also gets a good performance from her lead actress Lauren German. I liked how German tried her best to save this film. She does a very good job making her character entertaining while having good chemistry with her two male co-stars.
If there was one thing that ruined this film for me, was its screenplay, as it wasn’t something to write home about. Harrison’s screenplay really was okay, as it only accomplished half of what I was looking for. The main reason for that was the film’s humor. It
wasn’t the fact that was humor was completely grossed-out, even thought there is a scene that was gross out. It was just the fact that the humor felt dry and flat. When watching films like this, I want to laugh and enjoy the development of the relationship. I felt like I got half of that, as the relationship part was good, which I’ll talk about in a minute. It’s just that the humor wasn’t there. I only laughed about a couple of time during the whole film. In films like this, you have to laugh and enjoy the love story. Also, I thought all the supporting characters weren’t that interesting. Some of that could have been from the humor, as I was not sold on these characters. But Harrison did a good job with the love triangle that exists within the film, as I thought really kept the screenplay from completely going south. I was sold with this love triangle, as it focuses on German’s character with both her fiancé and his brother. It really saves the film from going terrible.
Love and Mary is wonderfully acting but sours with its flat humor.
Review Rating: 2.5 Stars.
DVD Extras
Cast Interviews
Trailers
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I have to say that it sounded promising from the premise.
Still thanks for reviewing these smaller films in such a crowded market place.
I thought this movie was very well
crafted and executed.
It's a low budget independent film; nobody pretends it has the production values of say a "Sleeping in Seattle" which probably cost a 100 times more. Shouldn't compare a Rolls Royce to a Toyota - but
they're both nice cars.
Enjoy it for what it is - a gem of an INDIE.
I saw this film at the SXSW festival where it sold out all 3 shows. I don't know why the original reviewer didn't think this was funny because the audience I was in laughed so loudly throughout the film, I know I missed some really funny lines. Maybe the reviewer needs to spend more time on their spelling and grammar, then review films! This film is great, don't miss it!
Woah woah woah - let's hold the phone guys. If someone doesn't think that it is funny, respect their opinion. Don't judge it (or the reviewer) because it is different from yours. And sxswfan, please don't start with grammer. Your comment wasn't too proper either - it is "laughed so loud," not "laughed so loudly."
SXSWfan,
Hey! I got an idea. How about we not rip into the writers, ok? Hey buddy! My name's Randy, and I'm the editor of the site. As I mentioned to some idiot last week who pissed me off by commenting on a writer's spelling and grammar, IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH EDITING, YOU CAN CONTACT ME. Randy@filmarcade.net. I'm here all day.
The critics who write for this site are NOT paid reviewers. They are very dedicated volunteers who spend a lot of time and effort producing content for the site. So, if they miss a spelling error or a typo every now and then, it is my job to deal with it. Not that I need to explain myself to you, but there have been some issues going on with Blogger lately, and I haven't been able to log in as admin and edit the reviews, including this one.
Give the guy a break. He wrote a good review. If you disagree with it, then that's fine. State your opinion, we'd be glad to hear it. However, don't go criticizing stupid stuff like grammar and spelling. If you have comments on that stuff, you reach me, THE EDITOR, at: Randy@filmarcade.net
I love how when someone has a different opinion than that of someone else, they jump right away to criticizing their spelling and grammar. When people are reviewing, they miss tiny things like that. I know from experience, I review films too. It just goes to show that you, my friend, really couldn't find anything wrong with the review.
Oh, and don't criticize people's writing until you get your own together.
"... the audience I was in laughed so loudly..."
Ha. I am laughing so loudly at your comment.
Have a nice day.
Randy W, Editor.
Randy@FilmArcade.net
"Laughed so loudly" is in fact correct.
Loudly is an adverb (ending with ly) that modifies the verb, laugh.
Did you ever diagram a sentence?
In fact, when I saw the film at SXSW the audience laughed very loudly.
And if a reviewer is going to criticize the WRITING, isn't it fair to criticize their writing?
It undermines their credibility if they don't appear to be literate.