Accidental Love ** (2015, Jessica Biel, Jake Gyllenhaal, James Marsden, Catherine Keener) – Movie Review

The story behind Accidental Love is perhaps more interesting than the movie itself. American Hustle director David O Russell filmed this screwball political satire back in 2008, but it hit finance problems and he and stars director Jessica Biel and Jake Gyllenhaal left the movie. Russell is credited as ‘Stephen Greene’.

The movie was shelved after principal photography ended in November 2008 and never fully finished and it is rumoured that crucial parts of the plot were never shot. But now, in 2015, it is released. Unfortunately this isn’t a very happy ending. A little bit of a train wreck, it is a chaotic mess, but still an interesting one.

Jessica Biel plays Alice Eckle, a naive small town waitress who accidentally gets a nail buried in her head at the very moment a cop (James Marsden) is proposing to her in a restaurant. It was originally called nailed, a much better title.

Alice doesn’t have a health care plan to pay for a brain operation, leading to her erratic and outrageous behaviour. To make things better by getting her cause taken up by an influential politician, she heads for Washington DC, where she falls for dashing but clueless Congressman Howard Birdwell (Jake Gyllenhaal), who may or may not be the man to save her.

You know, this isn’t at all bad a plot, and it has a serious point or two to make. It’s not bad stuff at all. There’s a slight tone problem, with the film not knowing whether to be goofy slapstick or sophisticated screwball, so it tries both. The latter would have been its best choice. If Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart were in these three main parts in the 40s, this could have worked nicely. Trouble is here that the actors aren’t especially skilled in screwball.

That excellent actor Gyllenhaal can’t play this kind of comedy and mugs desperately, though Biel and Marsden are better. Catherine Keener has the best shot at this kind of acting, emerging best as Birdwell’s self-seeking boss, the evil Republican senator Pam Hendrickson. (She’s against health care for all!)

With a fascinating cast that also includes James Brolin (the Speaker), Paul Reubens (as Pam’s aide), Kirstie Alley (Aunt Rita), Kurt Fuller (Reverend Norm), Tracy Morgan, Beverly D’Angelo and Bill Hader, it’s worth a cautious little look. I enjoyed it more than American Hustle, but then I didn’t like that at all.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

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