Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
Ashley (Lindsay Lohan) and Jake (Chris Pine) switch fortunes and find romance in 'Just My Luck.' - CONTRIBUTED
Just My Luck is a light, cute, harmless movie. Directed by Donald Petrie and with a screenplay by I. Marlene King and Amy Harris, its strongest ammunition is that its co-stars Lindsay Lohan and Chris Pine are both cute.
Of course, there are worse things than cute, so, Just My Luck is not so bad. The movie starts out promising to be reasonably funny but somewhere in the middle it veers off toward the ridiculous. Though it never gets down and out awful, it never comes close to good either but instead flounders about in not-so-bad land.
Lohan plays Ashley Albright who appears to have been cut from the Carrie Fisher (of Sex and the City) cloth. She is young attractive, and simply flits about town with nary a care in the world, other than romantic possibilities. To top it off, she has luck in her back pocket because her every move seems to be guided by fortune's, hands. Unfortunately, Just My Luck has none of the wit, charm and smarts of Sex and the City.
All it shares is a similar fashion sense.
LUCKY TO BE ALIVE
Pine plays Jack Hardin. He, on the other hand, is literally lucky to be alive. He has had such a run of bad luck that it must be luck why he is still breathing.
At his every turn he encounters misfortune, even picking up a coin from the street, usually a stroke of luck, turns into something bad for him. When Ashley and Jack meet, they share more than chemistry and the fates get confused.
Here is also where the movie gets too coy with the silly. The movie seems to fall in the tradition of movies like Big, Freaky Friday and the like where a person is transformed by some freaky piece of magic. But Just My Luck has none of the magical fun of those flicks.
Additionally, though it attempts to show that Ashley has run out of her luck, it is really clear that what she has run out of instead is good sense. It is one thing to sympathise with the unlucky, but it is another to feel empathy for the stupid, and though she is a redhead, Ashley has too many dumb-blonde traits (and not the good ones either).
SERIES OF CUTE MOVIES
Since The Parent Trap remake, Lohan has had a good run of cute, fun, movies that are written with enough wit to keep them interesting. Yet, with Herbie Fully Loaded, she seemed to veer off track, and with Just My Luck she seems to have hit a skid, even though she has finally been let out of high school. Her character is indeed the weakest part of this generally weak flick. Ashley is inane and uninteresting.
Just My Luck barely qualifies as a romantic comedy as the chemistry between Jack and Ashley is apparent but not overwhelming. But with some luck, you might just find it interesting, but cute is probably the best it can do.
