The Reality of Love (2004)

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Longtime friends Ryan Banks (Jason Priestly) and Todd Doherty (Bradley Cooper) are resorting to rather desperate measures. You see, Ryan was once a major film star and Todd has been his equally successful agent. Ryan was Todd's first client, a job that resulted from Ryan needing an agent, fast, when he was approached by a producer at a casual party. But, alas, show biz is always on to the next big thing and Ryan is in a slump. Therefore, in order to save BOTH their jobs, Todd tells his firm that he has a plan to boost Ryan's profile and have future jobs come pouring in. What is it? Well, there is going to be a new reality television show launched called I Want to Marry Ryan Banks. A dedicated bachelor, Ryan will finally find the woman of his dreams among ten beautiful finalists, like The Bachelor. It will end with Ryan on one knee, ring box in hand. The agency likes it. Meanwhile, a struggling book store owner/barmaid, Charlie (Emma Caufield) has had trouble in the romance department, too, despite being very pretty. To remedy this, her sister and brother in law sign her up for a tryout on the Ryan show, without her knowledge. After some reluctance, she agrees to do it. Wouldn't you know, Charlie ends up being one of the finalists! But, uh oh! This book seller actually spends more time with Todd and likes what she sees. Also, unknown to her, Todd, the smarter one, actually feeds conversation bits to Ryan, via earphones, so that she is unwittingly falling for lines Todd invents, not Ryan. What a merry mix-up might be brewing! Yes, ladies, here is your chance to see Cooper, before he was more famous, in a sweet, nice romcom. Priestly, natch, was the bigger star at the time, having been on 90210. He was and is handsome and talented, giving a charming turn here, too. As for Caufield, she is quite lovely and has the added bonus of coming off as bright and chipper. No, this reviewer won't reveal the ending, but with such great looking stars and fine costumes, sets, and lines, what's not to love romance fans? Reality says take the time to find it for a near future showing.

Jason's delivery in performance is great and funny. He has a great comedic performance. Emma turns in a funny performance as well. She is cast again with her 90210 alumni buddy. They were great then as a comedic team. They are great again in this movie. Although you may see what's coming with story line, it's still entertaining enough to stick it out to the end. Thanks to the teaming of Jason Priestly and Emma Caulfield this movie is great fun. The actor playing the agent is adorable in personality and looks. His chemistry with Emma is just as good with Emma. His chemistry with Jason is right on as well. Believable as old buddies and work partners.

I had seen the previews for this and decided to watch it just for some giggles. Unfortunately, I really didn't laugh much. This was a cute movie, there is absolutely nothing bad to say, it's predictable and maybe a little corny but certainly not unwatchable.But it wasn't all that funny. There was also absolutely no romantic chemistry between anyone so that took away from it. This really isn't my type of thing but I tuned in thinking they were really gonna do a satire on reality TV or something. To an extent they did. And the twist at the end was sweet-though it would have been better if it had been believable in any way. I saw another romantic comedy(also with a terrible title) called "win a date with tad Hamilton' around this same time and that one was in the theater. That was much much much better and had more of the humer I really appreciate. This was passable-a decent way to pass the time-but left me with a slightly unsatisfied feeling-I really wish they'd gone more into depth on reality TV in a comedic sense then making this just another romantic comedy-it worked for another Hollywood satire "America's sweethearts'. But in that case, the characters all had a lot more chemistry and hammed it up more. This was OK, as mentioned, there was just something missing. I'd say about a 5.5 out of 10.

After viewing a few scenes of this picture, I soon realized who was going to be the finalist. It was a cute, simple minded type of film, very down to earth about a humble waitress/bartender trying to rise above her position in life who had great qualities for being a great lover, wife and mother of your children. Emma Caulfield(Charlie),"Darkness Falls,"'03, gave a great performance to her role along with Bradley Cooper,(Todd Doherty),"Carnival Knowledge",'02. It was interesting to see how the actors were able to have their lines read to them with ear pieces, no cue cards were necessary at all and it made acting look real easy! Jason Priestly(Ryan Banks),"Die Mommie Die",'03 did not impress me in this film, but maybe that was the way he was suppose to play his role. Nice light minded film to sit back and enjoy if you CAN!!