Addicted to Love

Addicted to Love travels to a virtually unexplored realm of romantic comedies, but doesn’t quite take it all the way and fully immerse itself to make a wholehearted attempt. Generally a very enjoyable comedy, Addicted to Love focuses on the dark side of love where revenge is apparent and is extrapolated into full form. Most romantic comedies follow characters trying to get together; a chase if you will. Here it’s the opposite as Sam (Matthew Broderick) and Maggie (Meg Ryan) try and break up their former lovers who have ignited a romantic flame. Sam wants his Linda back whereas Maggie wants revenge on her Chef Anton, so they work together to sabotage the lovebirds’ happiness.

This is supposed to be a dark romantic comedy, but doesn’t quite go the distance. The pranks pulled in attempts to end Linda and Anton’s relationship are clever, yet mere child’s play. They’re ordinary parlor tricks and I found myself expecting a lot more mean spiritedness from that of the spiteful Maggie whose wicked despicable thirst for vengeance salivated like that of a bloodhound. For an R rating, it should have been a little more gutsy and crude.

I found that one undisputable strength of the film was that of the actors Meg Ryan and Matthew Broderick. They were brought out of their comfort zones to be bold and daring. Meg Ryan typically is the sweet, nice girl who’s always perky and upbeat. Here, her Maggie is a bad ass with a vendetta who’s up in everyone’s face relentlessly as she is self destructive and puts up an emotional barrier. The same goes for Broderick. Usually he’s the reserved nice guy; always polite and just as innocent as Meg Ryan in previous roles. Broderick lets loose portraying a love savvy romantic bum who becomes quite the prankster under Maggie’s influence.

Broderick and Ryan in these unfamiliar far from home roles make for an excellent chemistry between the mischievous duo. One can probably predict the outcome given the premise and the overdone formulaic genre, but the way the story unfolds goes against the grain. Seeing how things are revealed is refreshing to see coupled with Sam and Maggie’s antics. Stalking seems like the last idea on the list for romantic comedies, but somehow it’s made to work in this unique idealistic plot for a harmonic balance between revenge and love.

Written by: John Berkowitz

Reviewers Rating: 6
Reader's Rating: 6.00
Reader's Votes: 1

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