Griffin & Phoenix

Though anchored by two phenomenally effective lead performances, Griffin & Phoenix remains a strangely uninvolving piece of work – with this arms-length vibe due primarily to John Hill’s absurdly sentimental and melodramatic screenplay. Dermot Mulroney stars as Griffin, a life insurance salesman who discovers that he has less than two years to live. This doesn’t, however, stop him from dating Phoenix (Amanda Peet), and the film follows their efforts to forge something resembling a normal relationship. With its overly quirky dialogue and saccharine-laced plot developments, Griffin & Phoenix is almost entirely devoid of anything even resembling authenticity (ie this is essentially sitcom-level material). That being said, the movie does improve somewhere around the halfway mark after Hill starts to ease up on the relentless quirkiness and instead emphasizes various tearjerking elements (none of which are entirely successful, admittedly). And although Mulroney and Peet are quite good together, there’s simply no overlooking the movie-of-the-week vibe that’s permeating every aspect of Griffin & Phoenix.

** out of ****