Because of Imagine Me And You, I’m coming out of the closet I admit to my secret soft spot for romantic comedies. This sweet, warm fuzzy of a film is overly romantic but punctuated with a playful and progressive humour that makes it effortless to watch.
Imagine Me And You starts with the wedding of Rachel (Piper Perabo) to her handsome high-school sweetheart Heck (Matthew Goode). On her way down the aisle she locks eyes with the stunning florist Luce (Lena Headey) and in a flash Rachel’s notion of “the one” is challenged.
The fact that Perabo desires a woman is not played out for shock value. Refreshingly, it isn’t the focus nor the plot twist. Rachel faces little to no homophobia, no battle with the parents, no torturous coming out. Her biggest struggle is to avoid hurting her best friend and hubby Heck by pursuing Luce. It’s a tad unrealistic, perhaps, but if director Ol Parker presents an idealized world versus one that too often exists for women in this situation, I’ll move into Imagine Me And You-land to play Perabo’s flower girl any day.
Imagine Me And You is set in England and leans more toward a quirky British style of humour with a cast of bizarre but fun supporting characters. Perabo carries the film well with a charming Jennifer Garner-kind of appeal, and I for one was excited to see her play gay again after her 2001 Sapphic role in Lost And Delirious.
The chemistry between Perabo and Headey isn’t fireworks but Perabo is convincingly enchanted by Headey and despite a predictable ending I was rooting for them to get together. Imagine Me And You champions following your heart in a wonderfully unrealistic way. There is a sweet serendipitous trail of chance meetings that really takes advantage of loaded flower meanings and metaphors.
Leave your cynicism at home and Imagine Me And You is a great fluff movie for the newly dating, particularly if you are in the sunshine and lollypops stage of smitten.
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