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Cherry

[1999, Movie]

Cherry: Review

Just one look: Shalom Harlow and Jake Weber

A handsomely photographed but thoroughly miscalculated romantic comedy about a beautiful virgin whose desire to have a baby complicates her celibate existence. Jilted at the altar at a tender age, lovely Leila Sweet (supermodel Shalom Harlow) — an orphan raised by her wealthy Uncle Ernest (Gil Rogers) and his impossibly wise and patient companion Mammy (David McCallum) — burns her wedding dress and swears she'll never fall in love again. Ten years later, as younger sister Evy (Laurel Holloman) prepares for her own wedding, 29-year-old Leila is still off men, but also wants to start a family. A visit to the gynecologist brings handsome, child-friendly and instantly smitten Dr. Beverly Garland (Jake Weber) into her life, but professional clown Eddie (Donovan Leitch), who keeps turning up at Leila's place dressed in preposterous costumes, seems to have the edge in the prospective father sweepstakes. Why? Beats us. Writer Terry Reed and co-directors Jon Glascoe and Joseph Pierson seem to have been inspired by the sort of classic screwball comedies in which madcap heiresses wreak amusing havoc on the lives of lesser mortals. They're not alone among contemporary filmmakers in failing to notice that the actresses who once played such characters — Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, Jean Arthur — were actresses blessed with fire and emotional depth, not bland beauties who read their lines like high school drama students. Nor are they alone in not understanding that even madcap heiresses need to do things for better reasons than, "hey, wouldn't it be cute if..." Far more skilled performers than Harlow would be defeated by Leila, who's less a character than a patchwork quilt of quirks saddled with dialogue that could make strong men weep. --Maitland McDonagh