LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Along Came Polly
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The setup for ''Along Came Polly'' is ''The Heartbreak Kid'' in reverse, with Reuben, on the first day of his St. Barts honeymoon, discovering that his wife (Debra Messing) has entwined her flippers with a French scuba hunk (Hank Azaria). Back in New York, he's despondent until he meets Polly (Aniston), a former junior high acquaintance who has grown up into a lovely, if flaky, underachiever. The two appear to like each other, so the only real obstacle to their affair is Reuben's mania for cautious self-control.
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The pedigree behind Along Came Polly makes the film all the more disappointing. It is a reteaming of actor Ben Stiller and writer (and now first-time director) John Hamburg, who worked together on Zoolander and Meet the Parents. It is ... the latest film for Jennifer Aniston, whose profile is much higher now that she's shown she can actually act (The Good Girl) and her friends gig is nearing its conclusion. It's too bad that Along Came Polly never feels complete as a film. It feels like Hamburg had some ideas for a few scenes that he felt were funny. They didn't have that much in common, and he constructed a screenplay to work around this.
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In "Along Came Polly," Ben Stiller portrays risk-averse Reuben Feffer, whose best-laid plans for life and love careen wildly off track when his bride (Debra Messing) dumps him on their honeymoon for a muscle-bound scuba instructor (Hank Azaria). Stunned, humiliated and in the grip of acute indigestion, Reuben plans to play it safer than ever. But a chance encounter with an adventure-craving, childhood friend named Polly (Jennifer Aniston) shoots him into a whirlwind of extreme sports, spicy foods, ferrets, salsa dancing and living in the moment. The film ... stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bryan Brown and Alec Baldwin. The film is a Universal Pictures presentation of a Jersey Films Production, with Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher producing. "Along Came Polly" is written and directed by John Hamburg.
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"Along Came Polly" is predictable—maybe more so than the norm because if you've seen the theatrical trailer, you've basically seen the whole movie—but so are most films of this genre. Instead, the picture's fatal mistake is that, regardless of how energetic the cast is, the romance doesn't work on any level. On their own, Reuben and Polly are original enough character creations, with Reuben a by-the-book straight arrow who assessing every possible risk in life through a percentage and Polly a joyfully disorganized gypsy who never stays in one place long enough to get bored. Together, they fit about as well as two unrelated jigsaw puzzle pieces. While one can possibly believe Reuben might be attracted to Polly's liberated ways, there is no reason given for why Polly would even glance in Reuben's direction twice. The connection between these two people is never palpably felt, nor is there any heat or chemistry.
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If you have ever wondered what a Jane Austen book would be like if it were adapted by the Farrelly brothers, "Along Came Polly" will come close to providing an answer. There are scenes of charming, life-affirming romance, but they are mingled with extended sequences of painful toilet humor. It's as though one screenwriter wanted to make a sweet romantic comedy and the other wanted to do a rehash of "There's Something About Mary." It's a shame that these two incredibly different comedic styles are mixed together, because the plot is perfectly suited to either but suffers from the weight of supporting both.
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With Along Came Polly, Hamburg has tried hard to make a cookie cutter Hollywood romantic comedy, and in that end, he only succeeds in making a very formulaic by-the-book movie. While a lot of the humor works, the romance doesn't mainly due to the lack of chemistry between the two stars. The standout performances by the supporting cast do somewhat make up for it, but in general, much of the cast seems wasted. If nothing else, it proves that Hamburg should stick to straight comedy and leave the romance to others more suited for it.
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Along Came Polly