Writer-director Susannah Grant of the buddy-dramedy Catch And Release has a skill for dumbing things down. Now only are all her characters in Catch And Release vapid and patronizing, she has also managed to pen some of the most unimaginative screenplays of the last decade. Disney's Pocahontas was her first film credit, followed by Ever After, Eric Brockovich and most recently the 2006 remake of Charlotte's Web. Each of those films suffered in the writing department but Catch And Release is a much more abysmal failure.

Jennifer Garner plays Gray Wheeler, a young woman who struggles with the untimely death of her fiancé and soon learns that he kept many scandalous secrets from her. Can she rebuild her life? Can she love again? How will she ever reconcile her late lover's death? The concept is an interesting one, although not exactly new, and the cinema would only benefit from more grown up love stories about young widowhood. If Catch And Release contained any pro-feminist undertones--or even any semi-intelligent characters--it would have made for a sharp script. Unfortunately, Susannah Grant stuffs this fish fillet of a melodrama full of romantic cliches, studio-friendly stereotypes and convenient plot twists. I was never a big fan of the manufactured 90's sitcom Friends, but after watching films like Catch And Release, you start to appreciate the quality triteness of television.

The performances in Catch And Release are not that much more complex than Grant's self indulgent screenplay, which peaks in an organically-correct dinner between Gray, her dead fiancé's mistress and her always supportive friends. Jennifer Garner gives a strange, Aniston-esque performance as Gray, adding nothing to her potentially likable archetype, except a certain shallowness that's frightfully rewarded by screenwriter Grant. What's truly scary is that Grant writes Gray Wheeler as a totally naive and vulnerable character, which is believable given the tragic circumstances, and then lets her free fall into true love and reconciliation. How convenient and how dangerous! Is the answer to coping with widowhood really hopping into bed with your late fiancé's best friend? Not since Erin Brockovich has the feminist movement been advanced so far as in Catch And Release. (Hold for studio generated laughter)

But Jennifer Garner pulls off a few effective scenes which is certainly more that can be said for actor Timothy Olyphant, as the love interest, who gives possibly the worst performance in romantic comedy history as a man who wins Jennifer Garner's heart by staring. And occasionally smiling. And then repeating some formulaic, recycled tripe about his hobbies. Yes, 70% of Olyphant's performance is staring at Jennifer Garner, and hopefully that this will give solid hope to many shy men out there who now believe they can win over a beautiful widow's heart with just "hey" and "hello." (And a lot of staring, with smiling optional)

The worst thing about Catch And Release is not the acting or even the screenplay, but Grant's unfortunate job of directing. Catch And Release doesn't allow you to draw any conclusions about its characters, it simply plays soundtrack after soundtrack of sweet tragi-comedy songs that tell you how you should be feeling. Is this because the director doesn't want the audience to actually figure out how paper-thin her characters are? Or is there a deeper message here--perhaps the message is that a broken life can be rebuilt--with organic dinners between girlfriend and mistress, sex with your guy's best friend and heartwarming music played right on cue.

The best advice I would give to Susannah Grant is to watch more episodes of Friends before embarking on another unbearable romantic comedy. As lame as NBC sitcoms can be, they still give the audience the chance to laugh and cry of their own free will. Grade: D