Grade: C+

Verdict: You'll be more seduced by Manhattan than by the movie, but Will Smith in a romantic mood is a strong draw.

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
Cox News Service

In dating, lowering your standards can be dangerous.

In dating movies, lowering your standards is almost inevitable.

There are exceptions. Two of them star, of all people, Adam Sandler: "50 First Dates" and "The Wedding Singer."And on a whole different level, there's "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," possibly the most romantic movie of 2004.

"Hitch," which stars Will Smith as a matchmaker in Manhattan, is a little like being on a blind date. Bits of it are charming, much of it is awkward and several sequences plod along with the self-consciousness of a first-date stop-and-start conversation.

As Alex "Hitch" Hitchens, the coolest date doctor in town (referrals only), Smith slathers on the charm that's saved the world on an annual basis for the past few summers.

Hitch, who only takes male clients (in New York! Please!), is also extremely ethical. He only works with lifelong-committers, not the sleazy "hit and quit" guys who are into one-night-stands.

His motto is, "any man has a chance to sweep any woman off her feet. He just needs the right broom." Ironically, his dating-coach prowess deserts him when he becomes smitten with super-sexy, supremely self-confident Sara (a hot Eva Mendes), whose job as a gossip columnist has already exposed her to more jerks than she'd like.

Neophyte screenwriter Kevin Bisch has no idea how to complicate their relationship, so he resorts to barely credible misunderstandings of the "Yeah, I know, but there wouldn't be a movie ..." sort that send the picture careening uneasily close to mediocrity.

Happily, there's another romance to root for. Hitch's newest client is Albert (Kevin James), a shy, overweight accountant who's handed his heart to a beautiful celebrity heiress (Amber Valletta, with paler Cameron-Diaz eyes). Unfortunately, the only thing he's literally handed her is a ballpoint pen.

Director Andy Tennant, whose credits waffle from the adorable "Ever After" to the execrable "Sweet Home Alabama," lacks the imagination and/or skill to salvage the script's lapses. However, his movie's romantic Manhattan setting rivals Woody Allen's New York (and includes some less-familiar downtown sites).

James, who has the fat-boy buoyancy of Chris Farley, has better chemistry with Smith than you might think. And his committed Lord-of-the-Dance boogieing recalls that old "Saturday Night Live" sketch in which Farley went butt to butt against Patrick Swayze at a Chippendale audition.

At this point in his career, Smith has proved he can sell everything from the just-slumming embarrassment of"Wild Wild West" to the uncomfortable nostalgia of "The Legend of Bagger Vance." His to-the-camera monologues are every bit as good as Jude Law's in "Alfie." And Will in love is something we really haven't seen before.