Main Cast: Meg Ryan, Matthew Broderick, Kelly Preston, Tchéky Karyo, Maureen Stapleton
Release Year: 1997
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
In this slightly dark comedy about romantic obsession, Sam (Matthew Broderick) is an astronomer who likes his life in the small New England town he calls home and loves his fiancée, Linda (Kelly Preston). But one day, Linda tells Sam that she's moving to New York because she has found a new job -- and a new boyfriend. Sam is shocked and doesn't want to give Linda up, so when she moves to Manhattan, Sam follows her. Moving into an empty loft across the street from Linda's new apartment, Sam constructs a camera obscura that allows him to watch what she and her new beau, a French restaurateur named Anton (Tcheky Karyo), are up to. Sam's convinced that Linda is just going through a phase, and when she gets tired of Anton, he'll be there to pick up the pieces. But Sam soon has company in his obsessive watch over Linda's new flat: Anton's former girlfriend, Maggie (Meg Ryan), crashes Sam's hideout and joins him in his spy mission. While Sam just wants Linda back, Maggie is seething with rage against Anton after he dumped her and now she's out for revenge. Addicted to Love was the directorial debut of actor and producer Griffin Dunne; he cast his father, noted author Dominick Dunne, in a small role as a food writer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Nesbitt Blaisdell - Ed Green; Susan Forristal - Cecile; Mike Hodge - Linda's doorman; Conrad McLaren - motorcycle man; Larry Pine - street comic; Remak Ramsay - Prof. Wells; William Timoney - restaurant patron; Lee Wilkof - Carl; Richard Dreyfuss - astronomer; Dominick Dunne - Matheson; Helmar Augustus Cooper - bus driver; Daniel Dae Kim - undergrad assistant; Maurizio Benazzo - Euro-chic man; Bill Kux - desk clerk; Jacqueline Heinze - bald girl; Deborah Ayer - Gwen; Paolo Calamari - French bartender; Tom Forrest - astronomer; Shoshanna Gleich - school teacher; Steve McAuliff - business man
Credit
Stephen Alesch - Art Director, Cathy Sandrich - Casting, Amanda Mackey-Johnson - Casting, Caroline Baron - Co-producer, Johanna Demetrakas - Co-producer, Henry Bronchtein - First Assistant Director, Griffin Dunne - Director, Elizabeth Kling - Editor, Bob Weinstein - Executive Producer, Harvey Weinstein - Executive Producer, Rachel Portman - Composer (Music Score), Robin Standefer - Production Designer, Andrew Dunn - Cinematographer, Jeffrey Silver - Producer, Bobby Newmyer - Producer, Ed Novick - Sound/Sound Designer, Robert Gordon - Screenwriter
Two pairs of lovers playing out a comedy of errors, in which Maggie (Ryan) and Sam (Broderick), an astronomer, try several unethical and nasty tricks to break apart the envied union of their respective former partners, Antoine (Tchéky Karyo) and Linda (Preston).
Critical reviews
The film received harsh reviews. Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert panned it as immature, implausible and imbecilic, but still gave it two stars out of a possible four.[1]
He did not go as far as the Los Angeles Times' Kevin Thomas, who called it creepy and said:
“
It is exceedingly difficult to find what's funny in the calculated, obsessive, relentless destruction of Anton, especially when he proves to be the most likable and mature of all four of these people. Maybe Addicted to Love might work as a pitch-dark comedy, but in the way Robert Gordon has written it and Griffin Dunne directed it, it gives us the impression that we're supposed to take drastic, irrational revenge as a larky laff [sic] riot.[citation needed]
”
Reception
The advertisements did warn viewers that it would be darker than what Ryan and Broderick are usually associated with, using the taglines "A comedy about lost loves and last laughs" and "A comedy about two people who are getting off on getting even."[2] However, the film only managed to take $34,673,095 gross at the box office,[3] several million less than either Ryan[4] or Broderick's averages.[5]
Release
The Miramax 101 minute film, marking actor Griffin Dunne's directorial debut, was released on May 23, one week before the highly competitive Memorial Day weekend in the United States.
