Flutterby™! : Partner(s)

Yesterday, Charlene suggested a movie. Still sleep deprived from the trip, I said "sure, get whatever looks good". Charlene likes courtroom dramas, thrillers with twists, that sort of thing. I like silly romantic comedies. We both like movies that look at the non-mainstream. She came home with Partner(s), a movie which manages to incorporate all three.

Jonathan is a lawyer at a large firm. Katherine is his arch rival. In the inciting incident, they're told that there's only room for one more partner from their division this year, and it's fairly clear that even if they're fairly well matched lawyer-skills wise, Katherine has the edge because she's a woman. But there's a twist, a major client dealing with a big work discrimination lawsuit involving discrimination based on sexual preference asks specifically for Jonathan because he thinks Jonathan is gay. Jonathan is sweet on said client's daughter. Hijinks ensue.

It's not a great movie, the dialogue could have been tightened, I found myself distracted during the first half, and I think many story points could have been nicely tightened up. Despite the flaws in the story, however, the characters were endearing, and where it could have descended into trite parody of gay culture clichés instead it focused on the straight world's reaction. And the two emphatically "not gay" assistants got more than a few laugh-out-loud reactions from us.

Predictable, a little slow, could have used some story tightening, but worked pretty well. And nicely scratched both Charlene's "lawyers and intrigue" itch while fulfilling my romantic comedy desires.