A Lot Like Love has a lot to like

November 17, 2024

A Lot Like Love (spelled "a lot like Love" on the movie poster) is a lighthearted romance movie from the heyday of the romcom era. My wife and I watched it in a theater when it was released - we enjoyed the romcoms - and almost 20 years later it holds up surprisingly well, though viewers from generations younger than mine might disagree.

Kutcher plays Oliver, a young man on his grind, as kids say nowadays. He happens upon Emily (played by Amanda Peet), a young woman with loads of confidence but less obvious purpose.

They hook up, but Emily declines to make anything more of it. However, fate has them intermittently crossing paths over the following years as they zig zag to what most in the audience will likely find a satisfying conclusion.

The movie is structurally similar to Definitely, Maybe in how the characters drift in out and of each others lives. In Definitely, Maybe, artifacts of written words serve as connecting tissue throughout the movie while in A Lot Like Love it is photographs that bind the characters.

Kutcher does a good enough job of portraying a somewhat awkward but almost naively determined young man striving for success and eventually maturing into something more than that. Peet makes her character move effortlessly from grungy college girl to put-together professional.

This movie is a pretty good throwback for Gen Xers and older Millennials with its nod to grunge and the dotcom era. For younger viewers it can serve as a window into a culturally more easy-going time than today's high-strung and tightly wound landscape.