One Small Hitch

Josh and Molly have been friends since childhood. They are going back from Los Angeles to Chicago for a family wedding. At the airport Josh gets news: his father is seriously ill. To please the man he says something, that he and Molly are engaged. The lie spreads at once. The families are delighted, relatives are telephoned, a date starts being discussed, and nobody asks the two of them anything. Breaking the lie gets harder by the day. John Burgess directs. Shane McRae and Aubrey Dollar take the leads. The narrative uses the best known shape in romantic comedy: the fake relationship. What the film adds is not a change to the shape but a detailed construction of the family world. Irish American family life in Chicago is its ground; crowded tables, the church, the neighbourhood and everyone in everyone's business. It was made cheaply and independently and had no wide release. Its best quality is the supporting cast; the members of the two families carry the comedy. Its limit is predictability; where it is going is clear within ten minutes and the film springs no surprise. Who it is for: viewers who like romantic comedy and light family centred films. Who it is not for: the script is predictable, the conflict is low, and it does not step outside genre.