The Framing of the Spew
Continued

Kate and Leopold in a Nutshell Takes place in: New York Rips off: The Taming of the Shrew Unique spin: Time travel Rom-com stalwarts: Asshole boss Members of central couple involved in journalism or advertising: Her, and she sucks him in High points: Dorkariffic Liev Schreiber; best double-barreled face slap ever Low points: Liev plunges down an elevator shaft; unintentionally macabre scene in which Spaulding Gray plays a psychiatrist Point of contemplation: As Liev discusses mankind's inability to see time, I was able to clearly visualize all the time this movie had stolen from me 10-word summary: No Liev, no love, so stop hurting my movie boyfriend.

To fill out the movies even more, there is a fabulous array of stock characters to populate the scenes that don't feature meeting, fighting, reconciling or kissing. There's the asshole boss who compels one of the central characters to do something vaguely immoral and unsavory. There's the wacky best friend who shows up whenever the main character needs an external conscience or company on a cross country booty call. And should the film need an artificial obstacle to keep the main characters apart, there's the zany and fundamentally unlikeable fiance/e. This device was used to great effect in You've Got Mail, where apparently the specter of Tom Hanks willfully destroy Meg Ryan's family business wasn't enough to keep the two lovebirds away from each other.

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