Jessica,

technically, they did not instantly hate each other. Not sure what his feelings were, but she liked him at the first meeting. She tracked him down to happen upon him while he was jogging. I could be wrong, but I thought the screenwriter was kind of setting up their relationship to be a "healthier" version of the stalking behavior the man had engaged in with his wife.

What was not clear to me, that I wish the script had done a bit better, is establish approximately when his feelings changed. I probably could read something in the script, but it wasn't as clear as it needed to be.

Yeah, I don't agree that it hits all the rom com cliches at all. I mean, it hits some of them - it's definitely a romantic comedy - but I don't think they ever didn't like each other. She definitely liked him (at first, I think, because her sister disapproved, but then because he refused her and didn't make any concessions to her own oddness). I also read the movie as him liking her from the very first moment, but being unable to break out of his obsession - he didn't really want to be with his wife any more, but couldn't go there.

I also don't think there were misunderstandings. There was outright lying with the purpose of helping him get over his issues, which by all accounts should have caused all sorts of issues for them. The fact that it didn't is a little bit of a rom-com cliche, but also a testament to complexity of relationships.

In the end, yes, it's a dance/football/rom-com. With much better performances and significantly more interesting characters. And a more awesome final dance scene because they're just so awesomely bad. It reminded me of the climax of Little Miss Sunshine in a lot of ways. I think it is worthy of David A. Russell - it's not How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days .

I wouldn't say it reminded me of the end of Little Miss Sunshine, I would say it was a wholesale ripoff of the end of Little Miss Sunshine.

I was less than impressed with SLP. They did many things about portraying mental illness better than most movies/tv, which is not hard to do. I thoroughly enjoyed Jennifer Lawrence but Bradley Cooper's acting was mostly not at all believable to me. At the end my main thought was, THIS screenplay was nominated for an Oscar? Blergh.

Just saw a commerical for Fasterer and Furiouser 6, and it's kind of funny how those movies have evolved into these kind of buddy heist things, a la Ocean's 11.

That ad made that movie look like something I might enjoy.

I think I'm going to catch it on TNT or F/X.

I saw SLP, and loved it. I agree with Gris's interpretation of it. I thought it was just painfully real enough that it didn't seem like your average rom com. Maybe it is just that I know people like that, especially the parents of the protagonist, and I know houses that look like theirs on the inside. Yes, the end was cheesy, but I still loved it.

Just saw a commerical for Fasterer and Furiouser 6, and it's kind of funny how those movies have evolved into these kind of buddy heist things, a la Ocean's 11.

Ooh, yay, I will have to find it. The fifth one was so good.

Found it. Looks awesome. I'm there.

Finally saw Lincoln. Damn lot of good acting in that. I didn't even really see DDL in there until after the amendment passed and he got to smile a bit more widely.

Lots of "Oh, it's THAT guy!" for sure. I felt a little bad for Lee Pace. He gets this prominent role in a prestige Spielberg move, probably destined for nominations, but his role is as the chief orator against the amendment. I swear he had the look of "What is this going to get me typed as?" but I'm sure that was just my imagination. On the other hand it was wonderful to see Walton Goggins have a definitively heroic moment, even if it was a small one.

Like so many people have been saying, the proto-lobbyists led by Spader were awesome!

And I have to agree with something I read Samuel L. Jackson tweeted - the movie should have ended at the shot with Lincoln leaving for the Ford Theater. Spielberg just couldn't stop himself from going for a more sentimental ending, sadly.

I don't know enough about the facts to understand what is a spoiler in a biopic of Lincoln. Who was the first actor playing, and what did they do?