Return to Me
by Lovell Mahan-Moutaw

Am I the only person who likes Bonnie Hunt? I fear I may be and the rest of the world is insane.

Hunt wrote and directed Return to Me, a sweet, funny, sad and rather wonderful romantic comedy starring David Duchovny, Minnie Driver, Carroll O'Conner, Robert Loggia, Jim Belushi and Hunt herself.

I had heard scathing critiques of this film from all my friends. "Oh, you're going to that? Well so and so at the Rocky Mountain News gave it a D+!" "Oh, I heard on NPR that Return to Me was a waste of time."

Well, it isn't.

Often, when I hear such horrible comments before I see a film, I am unconsciously expecting nothing and therefore I will enjoy the film far more than if I expected something.

I gauged my reaction to Return to Me and find that this is not the case.

Bob is married to his high school sweetheart. They are very much in love. On a special evening she and Bob have a car accident. She dies. Meanwhile, Grace is dying of some heart ailment. She has never really been able to live. Grace gets Bob's wife's heart.

A year later Grace goes on to be healthy and happy (except for the fact that everyone who knows about her heart transplant treats her like a piece of porcelain). Bob is miserable, he is trying to build his wife's dream (a larger animal pen for a gorilla that she took care of at the Lincoln Park Zoo), his house is a mess, he is lonely, refuses to go out and his dog still waits at the door for his wife to come home.

He breaks down and goes out on what could be the world's most horrible blind date (she is truly hideous) and meets Grace.

Hokey-ily (my new word) but believably they feel as if they have met before. (There is a lot that could be hokey in the film if handled inappropriately. Either Hunt or Duchovny saved it though - I don't know who but it was entirely hokey-free, in my opinion.)

Bob falls into Grace's life willingly and falls in love with Grace easily.

However, she keeps her heart transplant a secret because she doesn't want him to treat her like a china doll.

I love romance and this is one of the better ones.

 

Duchovny, who I always knew would make a great romantic comedy hero, is adorable, sad, and hilarious. Driver, who I feared at the beginning would be a bit stiff and would have no chemistry with Duchovny, worked her way into the role nicely.

But, as with most romances, it is often not about the leads. It is about the ancillary characters and situations that makes the story rich. This story was like a double trouble, five layer chocolate cake, it is so rich. Hunt took her time telling the stories and not only letting us get to know Grace and Bob (both together and separate) but also those around them. And believe me, with this story, to know them is to love them.

Grace's extended family (the staff and hangers on at her grandfather's restaurant) created many light moments and made me want a pack of old men looking out for me. Carroll O'Connor was especially wonderful as Grace's overprotective grandpa.

Duchovny was marvelous. He had to go from blithely happy, to shell-shocked, to grief-stricken, to angry-at-life, to cautiously living, to confused and unsure but liking it anyway because he was falling in love again. I loved him. He is one of those not-so-gorgeous-but-so-damn-sexy guys that catches your heart and other parts of the body. He was wonderful in this role. He has this ability to look as if everything that is happening is actually just happening. (I know it is called acting, shut up). You really get a sense that he's right there experiencing it all for the first time. It's great.

Bonnie Hunt is funny and there is nothing that she is attached to (or at least her part of it) that hasn't been worthwhile in some form or other. Return to Me is more than worthwhile, a delightful afternoon or evening at the movies. Sad and happy, hilarious and heart-wrenching, romantic and comedic, it has everything I needed to enjoy a film. I recommend it wholeheartedly.