Louise Harrington (Laura Linney) is a divorced, 39-year-old admissions officer at Columbia University's School of Fine Arts. She is a woman who likes to stand apart from others and watch things unfold in front of her. Perhaps that's why she has chosen a profession that consists of looking and judging. She is not the kind of person who goes plunging boldly into the cold ocean water. She would stay on the beach while others tested the water. Her two best friends still wonder why she is alone at this stage in her life. Peter (Gabriel Byrne), her ex-husband, stops by regularly to chat. And Missy (Marcia Gay Harden), a friend from high school, keeps pushing her to loosen up and have more fun. But, of course, there is always more work to be done.
While looking through the admissions applications, she comes across a late entry from Scott Feinstadt. Louise is stunned — that is the name of her first love who died in a car accident 20 years ago. Even more astonishing, this handsome young man (Topher Grace) looks exactly like her boyfriend did so many years ago. For his interview, she wears a low-cut dress and makes no effort to hide the sexual energy passing between them. At her apartment, they make love. F. Scott, as he calls himself with a clever example of wit, asks, "As the head of admissions, can you balance business and pleasure?" Louise wonders that herself but she is too lost in her erotic reverie to answer.
Dylan Kidd (Roger Dodger) directs this romantic comedy based on a novel of the same name by Helen Schulman. It vividly depicts the roadblocks we often create when the path of love is too easy and unexpected grace unhinges us. Laura Linney gives a tour de force performance as a middle-aged woman who is her own worst enemy. Even though her affair with F. Scott is humming along nicely and she is pleased as punch to be with this clever and artistically talented young man, she insists on letting outside forces influence her feelings. On a trip home, she runs the old tapes that have always brought her down: she feels the criticism of her mother (Lois Smith) and the competitiveness of her brother (Paul Rudd), a recovering drug addict. Then Missy arrives in New York and reminds Louise that she stole Scott from her back in high school. Missy hits the nail on the head when she says of her friend: "Some people just refuse to let anything good happen to them." Peter doesn't help. He admits that he has always been a sex addict and that while they were married, he had many lovers. Instead of letting this information slip off her back, Louise feels bushwhacked from all sides.
This is a fresh romantic comedy that shows how we often sabotage ourselves when love arrives effortlessly in our arms and we don't know what to do with such a blessing.
