The forces of Fate, flexing their muscles in showy fashion, prevent Mr. and Ms. Right-for-Each-Other from crossing paths until just before the final curtain. Both paths are rocky, the more so because the agitated camera seems unable to commit to a position, a composition, an angle, anything. Any smoothing-down of frayed nerves, any mellowing-out of mood, could be traced to the bossa nova hit parade in the background. But apart from the Build-Your-Vocabulary term of saudade -- the Brazilian concept of commingled happiness and sadness -- the material feels threadbare and droopy. When meddlesome Mom, for example, submits a Personals ad on behalf of her unattached daughter ("Frisky, carefree, with a zest for living ..."), we are treated to one of those garden-variety interview/audition montages of phone messages and first dates. Unamusing comedy does not fit the definition of saudade. With Hope Davis, Alan Gelfant, Victor Argo, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Robert Klein; directed by Brad Anderson. (1998) — Duncan Shepherd
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