The Object of My Affection . Tucson Weekly . 04-27-98

The Object of My Affection

DIRECTED BY: Nicholas Hytner

REVIEWED: 04-27-98

This film has been deceptively marketed and shot as a fuzzy-wuzzy romantic comedy. Actually, it's a difficult and long-winded melodrama. Jennifer Aniston plays a pouty Brooklynite who dumps her boyfriend because she's smitten with her gay male roommate; Paul Rudd is the sweet-faced love object who reluctantly agrees to help the pregnant Aniston raise her child. Their intimate but sexually frustrating relationship would be plenty compelling if the movie could focus on it for more than two seconds. Instead, peripheral characters are repeatedly introduced and developed while the leads become disturbingly remote. The more the plot shifts in emphasis (with Rudd flaking out on the increasingly whiny Aniston to pursue a male lover), the more the two come across as outsiders in their own story. Not much rings true here: For all the script's insights about unrequited love and the meaning of "family," the picture is too leaden to be effective. One plus: Nigel Hawthorne (The Madness of King George) almost saves the show as a gay theatre critic who struggles to maintain dignity in the face of romantic humiliation.

--Woodruff

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Other Films by Nicholas Hytner
The Crucible
The Madness of King George

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First Love, Last Rites
Sunday
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