Unhitched

Alternate Title: The Best Man
Director: Stefan Schwartz

At first glace, Stefan Schwartz’s romantic comedy Unhitched appears to be a British male version of My Best Friend’s Wedding with nods to The Graduate and Roxanne thrown in for good measure. And while it is quite predictable to viewers who have seen the aforementioned films, I still couldn’t fault it as I remained charmed throughout. The likable Stuart Townsend is Olly Pickering, an aspiring writer who suffered writer’s block of the cruelest (but luckiest) kind after receiving too much money and encouragement with his first post-university try out of the gate when the two chapters he submitted to an agent were praised to the skies, thus rendering him unable to write another word. With his confidence shot, he accepts a miserable, lowly position as an assistant in a Women’s Self Help division of a London publishing house and moves in with Murray, his mischievous best friend from childhood (played by TV’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer scene stealer Seth Green). Thinking he’ll write a first class speech, old college friend James (Steve John Shepherd), contacts Olly out of the blue, promptly asking him to serve as the best man for his wedding even though they’ve fallen out of touch over the past few years. The clumsy but polite Olly graciously accepts the proposal but after a series of misfortunes, bumbles his first impression to the wedding party that’s made even more disastrous when he falls in love at first sight with James’s bride-to-be, Sarah (played by the lovely Amy Smart). Although, from that moment onward, it’s admittedly easy to identify what will happen throughout the storyline that is (as all romantic comedies dictate) filled with convenient and cutesy moments, Unhitched is ultimately likable rainy-day fun and I honestly enjoyed it even more than the far too mean-spirited My Best Friend’s Wedding.

Songs from Unhitched


“If You Find Yourself Caught in Love” by Belle & Sebastian


“Light & Day/Reach for the Sun” by The Polyphonic Spree