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'A Lot Like Love' is a lot like a plodder

The Ashton Kutcher-Amanda Peet vehicle A Lot Like Love is a lot like a romantic comedy, only it's not very romantic and it sure isn't very funny.

Touchstsone Pictures 'A Lot Like Love' C The verdict: Not enough like love or like a satisfying comedy. Director: Nigel Cole Starring: Amanda Peet, Ashton Kutcher Run time: 107 minutes Release date: April 22, 2005 Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, nudity and language. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime [an error occurred while processing this directive]

It so wants to give a new twist to the old formulas that it twists itself into knots avoiding a cumulative emotional punch.

The movie begins where many other romantic tales end, with Emily (Peet) and Oliver (Kutcher) having sex. Only it occurs in an airplane bathroom, a mile high in the air, when the kooky Emily barges in on uptight Oliver and has her way with him.

Later, on the ground, they introduce themselves and get to know each another, which leads to enough natural obstacles that it takes them seven years to get in sync and figure out that they were meant for each other. Hey, they're slow, and so is the movie.

Along the way, they each gain and shed a few other partners, he amasses a fortune and loses it in a high-tech diaper supply business, she becomes a photographer.

During all this, they have deep feelings for each other, but not at the same time. Peet (Something's Gotta Give, Melinda and Melinda) and Kutcher (That '70s Show, Guess Who?) have sufficient chemistry, but director Nigel Cole (Calendar Girls) lets the overlong movie plod along, where a zippier pace would have helped. Title cards tick off the time frame and soon it does feel like seven years pass by.