Chasing Amy Movie Review

Chasing Amy (1997)

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Written by: Kevin Smith
Directed by: Kevin Smith
Starring: Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Lee, Ethan Suplee
Rated: R
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Plot
Comic book artist Holden falls for Alyssa, a fellow artist. There's just one problem.

Verdict
This is crude, it is Kevin Smith after all, but it provides a unique take on the typical rom-com genre. The dialog sounds natural and despite the inherent humor, it captures the fears and feelings of inadequacy in relationships with great insight.  Love leads to mistakes and poor decisions which can't always be overcome.
Watch it.

Review
This is the typical story of a guy, Holden (Ben Afflek). falling for an unavailable girl Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams). The twist is that Alyssa already has a girlfriend.

The movie is often crude but silly and real enough to be believable. Holden is just friends with Alyssa, but he wants more. The movie does the platonic relationship well. He's longing for a girl he can't have, and she's oblivious. They have a rhetoric filled discussion about what is sex. The dialog sounds natural, a silly conversation you know people have or wish they could have. As Holden's best friend Banky concludes, Alyssa just needs a good night with a man.
Like Billy Crystal said in When Harry Met Sally (1989), men and women can't just be friends, and this movie sets out to prove that point regardless of sexual orientation.

Chasing Amy -The Kevin Smith version of a romance.

As strong as Holden's infatuation is, he can't overcome his fears about Alyssa's past sexual experiences. As Alyssa states, "Guys want to be Marco Polo, discovering virgin lands." It takes Holden a while to realize that his fears are linked to his feelings of inadequacy.

Holden's relationship with his best friend suffers too, and his solution to fix everything, while inane is a believable idea. When you're in love you don't think straight and often make the worst decision possible in the moment. The conclusion feels a little too Hollywood, but I liked that it wasn't a happy ending. It's bittersweet. It's a battle Holden braved and lived to tell about, even if it didn't pan out in the way he expected.