JUST MY LUCK (2006)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Maybe Lindsay Lohan needs a reality check when choosing projects. With the exception of "A Prairie Home Companion," Lohan has not made any real decent films. "Mean Girls" was occasionally diverting whereas "Freaky Friday" was a mediocre Disney remake, and "Herbie: Fully Loaded" was merely a bore. Things may change but one thing I can say, she is a major movie star and one hell of a good actress. With "Just My Luck," her charismatic star pulse outlasts the material. I mean, let's be honest, not even Julia Roberts ever did a haphazard romantic comedy like this one.
That is if you can call "Just My Luck" romantic or even comedic. The movie has this fantasy notion that some people are so lucky, they don't even have to open an umbrella when it is raining because the sun will magically shine when it is required to do so. Lohan plays the luckiest gal on earth, Ashley, who works for some anonymous marketing firm. She holds meetings for her boss who can be late when the elevator is stuck (talk about bad luck!) She can hold soirees and masquerade balls with boundless enthusiasm and the greatest of ease. She always wins when she scratches lottery tickets (that is almost too hard to swallow). Everything works out for this girl. That is until Ashley kisses a guy named Jake (Chris Pine) and, voila, her luck is gone. There are endless pratfalls, her dresses come apart at the seams, and she ends up in jail (Summoning Paris Hilton). Oh, yes, she throws a hairdryer in a bathtub and puts too much detergent in a washer! Unlucky or unwieldy?
The first fifteen minutes are devoted to Jake's unluckiness and then his sudden lucky streak thanks to kissing Ashley. Then we endure more than an hour of interminable nonsense about Ashley's unlucky streak. Chris Pine is merely bland as Jake, the love interest, though Lohan does make the screen lively when she appears. However, she can make the screen sparkle at any time (even in those funny faux commercials for "Saturday Night Live" she did a while back) but she also needs a good script. Lohan can't be witty on her own and can't slum through a movie and make us think we care. No, even Audrey Hepburn had good scripts. So did Ms. Romantic Comedy Meg Ryan, long time ago before monotony took over. Lohan may end up like Meg Ryan before she reaches her prime. That would be bad luck.
