You'll see a lot of reviews for this film with headlines that say stuff like, "It's heart is in the right place but..." That's because the film is about a woman who gets a heart transplant. Man, if you've seen the trailer, you know the plot. They give it all away. (All the funniest stuff is in the trailer too).

That's why it's hard to watch the first 20 minutes of the film. You know one of the characters isn't going to make it. You have to buy into the whole story from the first frame if you already know what it is about. They try to make you like the film by never challenging you. The film, really, never goes anywhere except exactly where you expect it to go.

The script and direction by Bonnie Hunt, who also acts in the film, wavers between typical, distracting and amusing. Occassionally, seemingly when the actors in the piece improvise, it gets pretty good. But laboring through some moments of the film can seem excruciating. It seems every time Hunt gains any moment whatsoever, she defeats herself with a scene that just doesn't quite nail it.

One of the major problems is David Duchovny as the male lead. He cannot do "emotion." He can do handsome, cute, sweet, likable, and charming with ease. But when the script calls on him to have any dour emotion whatsoever, he fails miserably. The two most important scenes in the film, which revolve around him, fall flat. His early segment in tears is so bad it hurts. It's so awkward. His closing moments, where he must "search his soul," don't work either. They aren't very well scripted, but they fail mainly because Duchovny is simply just incapable of making them fly. And they turn in to simple, typical, trite mush because of this. I will say this in his favor, you hardly ever think of him as Mulder while watching "Return to Me."

What makes the film work is Minnie Driver. She's so sweet and wonderful and real, that we can't help but fall under her spell. It's sweet to watch her and Duchovny dancing their way through their romance about mid-film. She is capable of making him shine here. We really like them and want them to succeed. Minnie is also aided by a troupe of capable older actors who work in her periphery. Robert Loggia is a standout among these. But Carroll O'Conner, TV's Archie Bunker, looks so old and unrecognizable that we can't get over it. I spent more time trying to look for a face I could acknowledge as his own than I did paying attention to his acting. It got to be too problematic.

Hunt propels "Return to Me" with way retro music by the likes of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra (or at least their clones). I guess this is to remind you it's a romantic comedy. In the end, the film is only mildly romantic, mildly amusing and mildly annoying.

Maybe they should call it "Return to the Box Office," because I bet half of the people who see it will want their money back. Even if it's heart is trying so obviously and desperately to be in the right place.

Note:

Also with James Belushi, David Alan Grier and Joely Richardson.

Script by Hunt and Don Lake (who has a small role).

The Nepotism Factor: Small parts played by Alice Hunt, Carol Hunt, Tom Hunt (what no Mike Hunt?) and Claire Lake. Hunt's brother is a doctor who helped arrange for some of the film's sequences to be shot in a hospital.

Working title was "Distance Calls."

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