Somewhere during the planning of The Hepburn Fallacy, somebody thought the following:

"Hey guys, you know how in romantic comedies the two protagonists have all these hilarious problems to plough through, but that ultimately everything works out really sweetly. Well, wouldn't it be just so CRAZY and MIND-BLOWING, if <big pause> the two main characters DIDN'T get together?" Take a bow (writer/director) Joyce Wu. Her dedication to that genre formulated to cater to the emotionally immature, the Romantic Comedy (or, to give it its proper title, the RomCom) is nothing short of bewildering. She goes through the standard armoury of the RomCom with the airless joy of the giddy fanatic, only to remove the standard reconciliatory ending and thus the only possible saving grace: that love can be a genuinely redeeming and important force.

Thus the end product resembles nothing so much as a fourth-rate version of Sex and the City. The attempt at fast, witty, sharp dialogue falls horribly flat. Though Wu's dialogue, though not outright awful, isn't quite up to the task, the major problem here is the treatment. Lines are raced through far too quickly and monotonically (either an attempt to replicate fast-talking Noo Yawk dialogue or a sign of unpreparedness; probably both) with the actors astonishingly failing to milk them for any worth. Out of the cast, only Dan Abelson displays any sign of real competence.

Over and above the acting difficulties is the paucity of Wu's direction: this was the most static play I have ever seen, the scarcity of on-stage action making life exceedingly boring for the viewer, especially when coupled with the between scenes music, horribly reminiscent of Kenny G.

If you want mindless RomCom action, I'd suggest sticking to Meg Ryan films.

Munzar Sharif, 27.05.03