She Came To Me

By Joanna Langfield

Bruce Springsteen’s “Addicted to Romance”, written to accompany the credits on Rebecca Miller’s film, is lithe and lovely. Too bad the movie itself is anything but.

Determinedly offbeat, this cheerfully independent romantic sort of comedy does get rolling on what feels like the good will not just of the people involved, but also from those of us watching. Who wouldn’t want to see an open hearted indie look at love, enacted by a handful of terrific actors, set, of course, in Brooklyn? You know, where all the cool people are. Even if they are, well, a little screwed up.

Peter Dinklage is an operettist who’s blocked, until he meets Marisa Tomei in a bar. Wife Anne Hathaway is also his therapist, but why is she so anal about their housekeeping? Cleaning lady Joanna Kulig’s splitting custody of her teenage daughter with partner Brian d’Arcy James and when these two families discover they are sharing more than they previously thought, the striving to be bright comedy takes a very difficult turn.

There’s nothing wrong with twisting genres or taking on the struggles of everyday life, of course. It’s just that Miller doesn’t seem to know how to do so with the grace Springsteen brings to the song he wrote (and performed) for her. The film kind of clunks along, never sufficiently charming or tugging at our heartstrings enough. The only actor who brightens up the screen is Tomei who, it should be noted, does her thing and then gets to disappear for a while, popping in, it feels, only to remind us of what could have been.