Entertaining love affairs and narrative sensibilities are wisely disregarded in Good Luck Chuck, Dane Cook's latest big screen appearance. Following in the footsteps of such romantic comedy greats as 40 Days and 40 Nights, Dane has helped to craft an equally inescapable pile of turnips. Like all memorable "rom-coms," Good Luck Chuck crafts its sprawling love story with all the right overused genre staples, and none of the attempted ingenuity that films like When Harry Met Sally mistakenly brought to the table.
You've Got Mail had its IMing, 10 Things I Hate About You its Shakespeare - here, it's penguins and topless babes. The penguins, incidentally, provide an arresting visual metaphor throughout the film. Some might go so far as to hail them as the cleverest use of animals-as-thematic-elements since the Gremlins.
Cook takes the lead well, never shying away from the dozens (upon dozens) of breasts that he is forced to fondle. As the title character Chuck, he finds himself the object of single women's affection everywhere: by sleeping with Chuck, a woman is guaranteed to meet the love of her life soon (sometimes the next day). Action-star peers Matt Damon and Jason Stratham often admit to doing most of their own stunts, and Cook should release a similar statement: those kama sutra positions can't be easy.
For her part, costar Jessica Alba brings more volume to love interest Carm than she ever has to a character before. No more eerie blonde dye jobs or skimpy blue bikinis; now she has penguins on her panties, with plenty of great comedic "timing" and "instinct" to boot. Think Goldie Hawn from Protocol with the attention appeal of Pamela Anderson in Borat, and we have something of a burgeoning MySpace-derived comedic superstar.
As the klutzy, nice girl to Cook's suave libido, Alba's the only one he wants, but he won't take her for fear of losing her to his supposed curse. It's quite the role reversal for Miss Alba that never quite works.
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