Addicted to Love (film)

Addicted to Love is a 1997 romantic comedy film, directed by Griffin Dunne. It stars Meg Ryan, Matthew Broderick and Kelly Preston. The movie's title is based on Robert Palmer's song "Addicted to Love". It is intended to be a humorous love story, but at some points is a dark comedy and at selective others, it is the traditional, romantic comedy for which Meg Ryan is known.

Plot

Two pairs of lovers playing out a comedy of errors, in which Maggie (Ryan) and Sam (Broderick), an astronomer, try several unethical and nasty tricks to break apart the envied union of their respective former partners, Anton (Tchéky Karyo) and Linda (Preston).

Critical reviews

The film received harsh reviews. Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert panned it as immature, implausible and imbecilic, but still gave it two stars out of a possible four.

He did not go as far as the Los Angeles Times' Kevin Thomas, who called it creepy and said:

It is exceedingly difficult to find what's funny in the calculated, obsessive, relentless destruction of Anton, especially when he proves to be the most likable and mature of all four of these people. Maybe Addicted to Love might work as a pitch-dark comedy, but in the way Robert Gordon has written it and Griffin Dunne directed it, it gives us the impression that we're supposed to take drastic, irrational revenge as a larky laff [sic] riot.

Reception

The advertisements did warn viewers that it would be darker than what Ryan and Broderick are usually associated with, using the taglines "A comedy about lost loves and last laughs" and "A comedy about two people who are getting off on getting even. However, the film only managed to take $34,673,095 gross at the box office, several million less than either Ryan or Broderick's averages.

Release

The Miramax 101 minute film, marking actor Griffin Dunne's directorial debut, was released on May 23, one week before the highly competitive Memorial Day weekend in the United States.

Locations

While the majority of the filming took place where it was set, in the Greenwich Village area of New York City, some shooting was done in Centreville, Delaware and Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

References

External links