I'm Reed Fish (2007)

A breezy, wholly engaging ninety minutes spent with a delightful cast.

Standard romantic comedy, but it's done so nicely, and is sufficiently spiced up by an unusual what-am-I-really-watching? storytelling device, that it rises above its genre.

Evoking a smothering sense of poisonous romantic yearning and horrifying personal inventory results, Fish hits those sharp notes of characterization often, in the middle of a plot that dances around convention perhaps one too many times.

Even if cast differently, this would be a weird film.

Perhaps in more experienced hands, this self-reflection could achieve insight, but as director Adler’s first feature and Fish’s first produced screenplay, this mess was better left inside the writer’s head.

Charms you with a quirkiness that feels oddly genuine and unforced.