The Very Thought of You (Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence by Nick Hamm (1998)
27 January 2008I am not usually a fan of romantic comedy, but this one is pretty cute and well done, and overall an enjoyable flick. I like movies like Rashomon where you see one event from different perspectives (though here it is not about the differences, but just seeing the same events from another perspective). It is kind of creepy how much Monica Potter looks like a younger Julia Roberts though. Just weird.
A young american woman named Martha (Monica Potter) comes to England and seriously effects the lives of 3 best friends. We are told the whole story by Laurence (Joseph Fiennes) to his neighbor he believes is a psychologist named Pedersen (Ray Winstone). The richest music executive friend Daniel (Tom Hallander) met Martha at the airport, and bought her an upgrade ticket, but she took the money, so he sat back in economy with her, and learns she is basically running away from her life. Daniel then gives her a free night at a hotel he uses for clients, and then never hears from her again. And he is totally in love with her, and depressed, but what we learn is in fact Laurence went to the airport to meet Daniel and talk about their friend Frank (Rufus Sewell), but missed him and got hit in the head, and met Martha and ended up going to the hotel with her, and they almost kissed, but when flowers arrived from Daniel, he ran to save his friendship.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS...
The 3 friends had lunch to talk about Martha. Frank learned of her, and when he skips on an audition, he meets the depressed Martha in the park and realizes who she is, and decides to steal her away, and he calls Laurence to boast.
Laurence leaves his job teaching bridge to go find Martha, and gets her away from Frank without him seeing his friend, but he is nasty to her, for no reason, but brings her back to his apartment, and she fell asleep. That is why Laurence is talking to his neighbor, but when he returns home Martha is gone, because she saw a photo of the 3 friends, and thinks she is being set up.
The next day, each friend gets a message to go and meet Martha, and they all find each other. Frank and Daniel fight, but it actually makes them better friends, but Laurence is so wimpy he lets Martha go, but then decides to do what she did, and goes into a travel agency and buys the first flight out for 100 pounds, to Iceland. When he leaves, Martha was there hiding.
On the plain Martha is there, and they get together because they are in love, and were from when they first met.
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An enjoyable romantic comedy.