Andrew (Jerry Lee) has a crush on Kristin (Tara Tomicevic). Rather than listen to the professor in his economics class, he spends the time staring at her and scheming of ways to talk to her. The plan he settles on is less than stellar; on exam day, rather than take his exam, he watches Kristin. When she finishes he follows her up to the professor’s desk and secretly spills ink on the back of her shirt. While following Kristin and her friend out of the building, Andrew “just happens” to notice the ink stain and points it out to her, along with indignant cries of, “Who would do such a thing?”
Andrew gets his date with Kristin, but eventually she finds out the truth about the ink stain incident and is understandably ticked off. But even with such a rocky start, Andrew is still determined to convince Kristin that, in his own awkwardly clumsy way, he really does care for her.
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This movie had some funny moments – and they’re things that all of us have been guilty of at one time or another. The ink stain notwithstanding, there’s one scene where Andrew is standing in front of the mirror and practicing lines to use on Kristen – each one lamer than the last. And later on, when confused about the nature of their relationship, he writes Kristin a letter and asks his roommate to deliver it. However, Andrew tags along to watch the delivery take place, and then hides in the back on a nearby truck for fear that Kristin will see him. I died laughing.
The structure of the film was a little random and it had a few minor logic holes. First, when Andrew hid in a truck to avoid being seen by Kristin, the owner actually got in the truck and drove away which, funny as it was, might be a bit of a stretch to think that the driver didn’t see Andrew in the back. Although this allowed for a great laugh in the following scene, where Andrew is standing on the side of the road as the truck drives away.
In addition, I didn’t quite understand the title of the film. It’s possible I may have missed some bit of dialogue that implied the meaning, but it ought to be a relatively clear thing to an audience. The opening credits do mention that it was adapted from a novel, but the title is in another language. Besides, most people might not catch this title card.
There are several instances throughout the movie where Kristin begs off a date or asks Andrew for a ride, when she receives a phone call from a certain unknown person she needs to go see. We never do find out who this mysterious person is, if they actually exist. My theories are that either Kristin was involved in something rather dark and possibly illegal – which really doesn’t fit the tone of what is generally a lighthearted comedy – or that she was just a but commitment-phobic and wanted an excuse to avoid Andrew’s affection. The latter seems like the more likely of the two possibilities, but as it was not made clear in the film, I could only guess. In some ways, Kristin’s character reminded me a bit of Audrey Hepburn’s famous character Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. While Holly is a bit of an extreme example, it might give some good character insights. If Kristin is just trying, in fact, to avoid affection, there are some clearer ways to explain this to the audience. For example, when Kristin receives a phone call from the unknown stranger, there could be a quick insert shot of her roommate hanging up the phone. It might be a good idea to ask friends and family for some of the more clever strategies they’ve used for getting out of bad dates as well.
