Starring:
Jason Lee as Paul Morse
Julia Stiles as Becky
Selma Blair as Karen
James Brolin
Shawn Hatosy
Lochlyn Munro
Julie Hagerty
Diana Scarwid
Summary:
The end of December and the early part of January is the time of the year when the studios unleash the movies that they think do not have a broad appeal but still have a good chance of earning Oscar nominations. This year has been no exception and there are many good cerebral movies in the theaters. This has left a space for some more light hearted movies to fall into and “A Guy Thing” fits in perfectly.
Story:
Jason Lee stars as Paul Morse a man about to be married and standing at a bar waiting for his bachelor party to start. He is uncomfortable with what is about to happen and changes places with one of his groomsmen so that he will not be tempted, but one of the dancers (Julia Stiles) is sort of cute. Cut scene to next morning. His mother-in-law to be calls, waking him from a drunken sleep, and asks to talk to her daughter. He rolls over in bed to only his surprise find that it is the dancer sleeping nude next to him. From there the movie tries to find humor, and often does, in Paul’s attempts to hide his bachelor party activities from his fiance Karen (Selma Blair).
Critique:
If this was your typical bachelor party movie, none of the characters would show any significant growth and the relationships at the end of the movie would be unchanged from those at the start of the movie. Fortunately the script has some twists in it but most of the character development is lost upon the acting skills of Jason Lee. His character develops the most in the movie but it is beyond his acting skills to be anything but the “sarcastic jerk”. If it was not for a soliloquy towards the end of the movie his emotional change would have gone completely unnoticed. But no one walks into a movie that predominantly displays a bachelor party and expects character growth, so it is still a nice addition.
Who should see this movie? Anyone that likes light-hearted romantic comedies will find that this movie does have its moments of charm. The humor, while often juvenile, is rarely outright crude, so it should appeal to anyone looking for a safe date movie. The action mostly involves beating up Jason Lee, which is reason enough for some people, but it is a minor aspect of the movie.
If you seek a movie that will engage your mind and keep you thinking about it later, there are plenty of different movies to choose from right now. Unless you are a huge fan of the actors, or you are just desperate to watch something that will not stick with you afterwards, then this movie is probably best watched at home.
