Imagine Me & You - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution movie review

'Imagine Me & You': Open-minded, open-hearted

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

If you liked "Kissing Jessica Stein," you'll probably like "Imagine Me & You," a lightweight lesbian love story about a presumed heterosexual who crosses over to the other side.

When we meet her, Rachel (Piper Perabo) is the sort of girly-girl who's flattered when her little sister says she "looks like a meringue" in her wedding dress. But about halfway down the aisle to join her husband-to-be, Heck (Matthew Goode), at the altar, Rachel locks eyes with a stranger. Not a he-stranger, a she-stranger: beautiful Luce (Lena Headey) who provided the flowers for the wedding. The two see each other again at the reception when Rachel drops her wedding ring into the punch and Luce retrieves it for her.

Fox Searchlight Pictures

'Imagine Me & You'

B-

The verdict: Not especially imaginative, but certainly pleasant enough.

Director: Ol Parker
Starring: Piper Perabo, Lena Headey, Celia Imrie, Matthew Goode, Anthony Stewart Head
Run time: 93 minutes
Release date: Jan. 27, 2006
Rating: R for language and non-graphic sexual situations.
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Not exactly a good omen.

Rachel is initially drawn to Luce as a friend (she thinks) and tries a little matchmaking with Heck's caddish best friend, Coop (Darren Boyd). But Coop isn't Luce's type; Rachel is.

With its London setting and crisp, mostly British cast, "Imagine Me & You" has more in common with "Love Actually" or "Four Weddings and a Funeral" than it does with, say, "Brokeback Mountain." Rachel and Luce's road to true love is comparatively easy, to the point of straining the plot's credibility. Lady and the Tramp had more problems than these two.

But that may be on purpose. "Imagine Me & You" is less focused on same-gender love than it is on the fact that Rachel's already married, and Luce doesn't think coming between her and Heck is a decent thing to do. There's also the question of love at first sight. Does it really exist? Can it be the basis for a long-standing relationship?

All of Rachel's and Luce's friends and family are remarkably unfazed by their mutual attraction — which is a little hard to buy, but also gives the movie a refreshingly politics-free air. Heck, who's unfailingly portrayed as a nice guy, finds out about Luce's sexual orientation first and makes a crack about her being as gay as a tennis player. But that's about as cruel as anyone gets. And even he means it as a joke.

Writer-director Ol Parker, who's married to Thandie Newton (she has a cute cameo at the end), is a romantic, not a polemicist. Anyone looking for astute cultural comments (or hot sex) best look elsewhere. But if you're in the mood for a moonstruck trifle with a drizzly London setting, this might not be such a bad choice. All that's required is that you be as open-minded as the movie is open-hearted.