Warning: this page contains spoilers!
I liked this film, although I did have a minor dispute with a friend of mine when it first came out; I think that it counts as science-fiction (since it involves alternate realities), whereas he disagreed. On the other hand, I like romantic comedies too, so it doesn't bother me if it has that tag.
Mind you, there is a separate question of whether it can be classed as a comedy, since it has various unhappy bits in it. I'd go with the "romantic" description, and there were comic moments to it, but it wasn't a comedy as such. At the risk of sounding like a literary pseud, perhaps this film transcends genre?
I think that there are two main types of comedies:
At the risk of sounding puerile, the first type does appeal to me - custard pies etc. However, I generally go for the latter. I think that maybe in order for the comedy to work, you need tragic elements to balance it. Rather like needing the darkness to see the light.
As for the ending, for some reason the Radio Times refers to it as being "exactly right", which seemed rather odd. There are times I wish I could slide between realities, to fix what went wrong, and this is a good example of that. To get philosophical for a moment, I think that in a way fictional stories do have a kind of reality (as opposed to realism).
This page was last updated on 2003-12-29 by John C. Kirk