What would you do if you met The One, and you let her slip away? You could
sit around and mope. You could dismiss the whole idea, and persuade yourself
that there are other fish in the sea. Or, you could scour the
entire city, vowing not to rest until you track down your mystery soulmate!
Kevin Gibbons has never had much luck with the ladies. Oh, he gets along all
right for a while, but when the time comes to say goodbye, he's too
tongue-tied to ask for their number. Not that he allows it to bother him; he
isn't interested in simply dating for the sake of it, anyway not when he
knows that The One, his perfect soulmate, is out there somewhere, waiting.
Besides, his life is busy enough as it is, sharing a Chicago apartment with
three wacky pals, and trying to keep up with his job as an executive in a
bustling advertising agency. But his lack of courage is bound to catch up
with him sooner or later.
First it crops up in workplace: he and a competitive coworker are under
pressure from their boss to come up with a creative sales pitch for a new
line of athletic shoes. Kevin finally hits on a brilliant idea, but when the
time comes to present their campaign to the manufacturers, its the same old
story: he chokes. He isn't brave enough to speak up, and his coworker steals
all the credit. Now his timidity may ruin his only chance at happiness.
While commuting to work on the L one day, Kevin strikes up a conversation
with a pretty female passenger who happens to share his enjoyment of the
singer Al Green. Its love at first sight as far as Kevin's concerned, but
when they reach their stop, he's too shy to ask her out, or even request a
phone number ... in fact, he doesn't even know her name! And before he knows
it, she's gone. Vanished into the crowded sidewalks of Chicago, just another
face among thousands.
Feeling like an utter fool, he relates the woeful tale to his buddies back
at home. They agree that its extremely unlikely hell ever see this mystery
girl again, but Kevin is determined to take action for once in his life.
That's when he gets an idea that's so crazy, it just might work! Are You
Her? The sign is simple, containing a few highlights from the conversation
he had with his nameless dream girl. Kevin also pens his phone number at the
bottom, hoping desperately that shell come forward when she reads the ad.
The guys go out onto the streets, armed with thousands of these posters,
pasting them on every available wall. Its an original plan, and one that
quickly captures the imaginations of the people passing by. Unfortunately,
it has an unforeseen and overwhelming effect on the female half of the
population; Kevin is soon besieged by dozens of women, all claiming to be
his mystery love. Days slip by. Millions of calls pour in from lonely
imposters, but not a word from his girl.
The situations starting to look pretty bleak, but Kevin's determined not to
give up. More posters, even an article in the paper and suddenly all of
Chicago is swept up into his whimsical romantic quest. As the days turn to
weeks, everyone holds his or her breath as they silently wonder, Will he or
wont he find his L train sweetheart? Get On the Line and find out!
Apparently, its quite the thing for young pop stars to try their hand at
acting: Jennifer Lopez has appeared in several films over the past few
years; Mariah Carey recently came out with Glitter; Britney has an
upcoming movie debut; and now we have On the Line from NSYNC.
Featuring two of the five band members, this movie will, I'm sure, be a big
hit with their legions of preteen fans. I don't think anyone was expecting
Oscar-worthy results from such a venture; therefore, I'm not going to rant
on and on about the actual production values. This isn't art; its
essentially a *NSYNC tune translated to the media of film: Cute, catchy, and
fairly clean, but overall, formulaic and entirely lacking in depth.
Objectionable content was kept to a minimum, with only one or two
profanities (plus a sprinkling of borderline words like freakin and heck,
and a few crude bathroom jokes). Violence is restricted to one or two
slapstick-y incidents. The characters hang out in a bar once or twice, where
Kevin (Lance Bass) can be seen drinking a beer, and Rod (Joey Fatone) sprays
mouth freshener down his pants before going on a date.
Where this film really falls short is in its misleading portrayal of love
and romance not that that's unusual for Hollywood. Kevin and Abbey find
themselves attracted to each other for wholly superficial reasons, which is
somehow presumed to be a basis for happily ever after. Later, Kevin's
friends are shown going out with different women every night, as if love
were merely a game (thankfully, though, from what the viewer can tell, their
dates never end up in bed). If you're planning to take impressionable
teeny-boppers to see this flick, make sure they know the godly principles
behind choosing a spouse; such an important decision should never be based
solely on looks, or surface similarities. Overall, its a pretty harmless
show, and not a bad way to spend 80 minutes in a theatre considering what
else is currently playing. It's a low-grade take-off of Serendipity,
but without some of the innuendo and New Age philosophy, making it a much
better (if less engaging) choice for the younger crowd.
