Luck's mostly bad as silly, contrived teen plot fizzles

Robert Denerstein, Rocky Mountain News

Friday, May 12, 2006

Lindsay Lohan does her best to channel the spirit of Lucille Ball in Just My Luck, a comedy about a PR princess who suddenly becomes the world's unluckiest woman.

Whether battling an overflowing washing machine or trying to out-maneuver a balky floor-waxer, Lohan proves that she can handle klutzy physical comedy.

Whether this is something you need to see proven is a whole other matter. I don't think it takes much by way of imagination to know where I stand; 14-year-old girls may think differently as they giggle their way through this painfully contrived romantic comedy.

Just My Luck revolves around a purposefully silly conceit: Good luck can be passed from one person to another with a kiss.

Lohan's Ashley Albright is an upcoming PR woman who has caught the eye of her boss (Missi Pyle). Why not? Ashley is blessed. When she steps into a rainstorm, the sun suddenly bursts through. She hails a cab; no problem, a driver instantly pulls up.

And when she's stranded at a meeting with a big-time record producer (Faizon Love), she sells him on a major promotional campaign.

But Ashley's luck changes when she kisses Jake (Chris Pine), the world's unluckiest man, a disheveled loser who's trying to make it as the promoter of a rock band, a real group called McFly.

How bad is Jake's luck? When he accidently bumps into a woman in a park, he winds up getting arrested. His career isn't exactly going great guns, either.

He works in a bowling alley, where he's charged with cleaning the toilets. After the magical kiss, everything Jake touches turns to gold, and Ashley slips ever deeper into bad-luck hell.

A broken heel during a fancy masquerade ball that she has organized marks the beginning of Ashley's fall from grace, which includes loss of job and apartment.

As directed by Donald Petrie (Welcome to Mooseport and Miss Congeniality), the movie tries to adopt a breezy attitude toward life in New York. But you have to be in a bubble-gum frame of mind to buy into anything that's being sold here.

If you weren't sure that this is a low-end teen effort, the finale will convince you. The story concludes with McFly making its debut to a packed house at the Hard Rock Times Square, and you suddenly feel as if you landed in a music video.

When it's not acting goofy, Just My Luck carts out sitcom ploys: Ashley and Jake pass good luck back and forth as if it were a communicable disease, allowing the plot to tip this way and that.

Lohan does a decent job for this kind of movie; Pine, who looks a bit like Josh Hartnett, does well enough, although the chemistry between them hardly sizzles. Oh well, the comedy staggers toward the inevitable life lesson that even the characters probably don't care about.

Say this: Just My Luck is the only movie in town in which you can see Lohan punched in the face by a fellow inmate when she lands in the slammer during one of her bad-luck phases. Lohan's detractors should know that the gag is shown twice. Ouch!