Gray Matters

Starring: Heather Graham, Tom Cavanagh, Bridget Moynahan, Molly Shannon, Alan Cumming, Sissy Spacek
Directed by: Sue Kramer
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy, Romance
2006

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Gray (Heather Graham) and Sam (Tom Cavanagh) are about as close as two siblings could possibly be. Their relationship is tested when Sam falls in love with a beautiful woman, Charlie (Bridget Moynahan) who shares a drunken kiss with Gray the night before her wedding to Sam. Gray realizes that she, too is falling in love with Charlie, which causes her to rethink her sexuality and worries about how this will impact her brother.

Review:

Tim: On the surface, this seems like one of those light-as-a-feather, silly, and easily dismissed romantic comedies. Luckily, I found this film had more substance and heart than I expected, and proved to be more fun than it looks. In many ways, Gray Matters does end up being the fluffy, forgettable movie you expect. However, it does have a sharper edge to it, which allows it to make more of an impact than you'd expect.

Whenever I watch a romantic comedy, I need it to do something new or interesting. They have been making these movies for decades, often with little to differentiate one from the other. To be successful today, I really believe romantic comedies need to spice up the story and breath new life into this too often tired genre. Gray Matters does that by having a brother and sister both fall in love with the same woman. This is an interesting dilemma, which brings up family issues, commentary about homosexuality, and the stigma gay and lesbian people still suffer today. This brings some meat to the movie, and I appreciated it.

Now, this isn't to say that this movie doesn't have its flaws. The premise is interesting, if a little far-fetched. Some of the film's quirkier aspects are a little hard to believe (a therapist who gives sessions while participating in different athletic activities? going up to the rooftop with a stranger cab driver who you believe has a heart of gold?). And, there are also some downright bizarre moments (a therapist straight-up telling a client "you are not gay" and a lesbian woman engaging in a romantic relationship with a business client) which seem not to notice that they are a bit unethical or at the least, sketchy. These moments hurt the movie more than anything else.

The cast is actually pretty good, although most of them could have given better performances. Heather Graham is mostly good- she does bring her charisma and a good deal of energy to the role. She's mostly likeable and enjoyable in the role, although I doubt anyone would claim her acting was very good at any point in this movie. Tom Cavanagh is an actor whom I always love to watch. He has such an appealing presence, I'm always a fan of seeing him on screen. The biggest problem is that Cavanagh isn't in the movie nearly enough. This is very much Graham's movie, and Cavanagh sadly takes a back seat. For long stretches of the movie, Cavanagh's presence is missed. Bridget Moynahan rounds out the cast, giving a fairly good performance as well. Like Graham, she seems game for the role, willing to bring a fair amount of chemistry and energy to the role. She gets along on screen very well with both Cavanagh and Graham. I'm not sure if it is difficult to have chemistry with both a man and a woman in the same film, but Moynahan manages to pull this off here. The supporting cast is lackluster. I always like seeing Alan Cumming, but I wish he didn't have such a creepy, useless role. I was a bit surprised to see Sissy Spacek, but again, her role constituted one of the film's biggest flaws, so I can't give her much credit. Finally, this movie is saddled with the endlessly annoying Molly Shannon, an actress so frustrating and aggravating that I won't go into any detail except to beg people to stop casting her in movies.

Gray Matters definitely suffers from some of the worst romantic comedy cliches, but the movie as a whole manages to separate itself in a few ways from the multitude, which I appreciated. I found myself enjoying this movie far more than I probably should have, but not nearly enough as I needed to.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



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