Wicker Park ** (2004, Josh Hartnett, Diane Kruger, Matthew Lillard, Rose Byrne) – Classic Movie Review 675

Tending to let his single eyebrow do most of the acting for him, Josh Hartnett plays Matthew, a young Chicago advertising executive who is about to marry his boss’s daughter when he sees his long-lost love Lisa (Troy’s Diane Kruger) in a cafe. Or does he?

He follows her to a flat, but there he finds another girl (Rose Byrne), who then makes love to him. Calling herself Lisa, she is an actress named Alex and may hold the key to Lisa’s disappearance.

Matthew Lillard co-stars as Matthew’s friend Luke, who helps him track Lisa down after she walked out on him without a word two years earlier.

Miscast and dull though the attractive cast seems, it’s not their fault they’re struggling. Brandon Boyce’s arty-farty French-movie-derived screenplay (from Gilles Mimouni’s 1996 L’Appartement) and Paul McGuigan’s direction never really get going much at all. And any flickering sparks of interest soon die in the appallingly long running time of a movie that’s about half-an-hour too long.

This 2005 romantic thriller tale of obsession looks extremely good, though, and is very nicely made on a technical level, as it should be on a $30million cost. Struggling to recoup its costs, it grossed $12,800,000 in the US and £624,000 in the UK. It was filmed in Montreal, Quebec, and on Chicago locations that of course include Wicker Park.

Hartnett took over after Paul Walker was forced to drop out due to complications with the filming of 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003).

The restaurant in the film is called Bellucci after Monica Bellucci, star of L’Appartement.

Happily, McGuigan went on to make Lucky Number Slevin with Hartnett in 2006.

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(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 675 derekwinnert.com