Antonia Bird almost had a winner with the movie Mad Love. Almost. The movie is not short on talent, starring Chris O'Donnell (Batman & Robin, The Bachelor) and Drew Barrymore (Ever After, Home Fries). The co-stars even have good chemistry between them, but they are in reality nothing more than stock leads. O'Donnel is your average, run-of-the-mill, typical high school student; and Barrymore plays a clinically depressed new girl in town. Of course they are going to fall in love, give me a break.

Mad Love is an ambiguous movie, containing elements of a drama, comedy, and a teen romance. For lack of a better phrase, it is nothing more than a dysfunctional love story. The writers just used an old idea, to make an average movie, and try to get a few dollars for it from the poor saps like myself who go and watch it.

Many of the scenes in the movie seem to have been just thrown together to fill up space, as if the movie was originally only a half hour long. The drama wasn't very dramatic, the comedy wasn't all that funny, and the romance was only romantic because of the chemistry and superb acting by our co-stars.

Matt (O'Donnel) lives a pretty much uneventful life. His mother passed away when he was nine, and his father is at work all of the time. He gets the job of sending his younger siblings off to school every morning. His main concern in life is getting good grades in school.

Then he meets Casey (Barrymore), a new girl in school, and falls in love with her. She is clinically depressed, and lives with her overbearing father and her understanding mother, who almost comes across as patronizing. Casey gets in an argument with her parents, and overdoses on some sleeping pills. Her parents institutionalize her, and then what do they do? Forbid Matt to ever see her again. Wow, that's almost original.

Matt helps Casey escape, and they take off on a nice road trip, headed for Mexico. On the way there, Casey has a few fits of manic depression and Matt gets scared and calls her mother. Only too eager to get her daughter back, she convinces Matt that it is in Casey's best interest to get her back home for treatment. While this proves to be the case, it makes for a rather bland ending to an already bland movie.

The only real reason to watch Mad Love, is for the outstanding acting by O'Donnel and Barrymore, and the great chemistry between them. If you can look past the boring, time-filler scenes, and the not-so-original plot, you may find something worth spending 106 minutes of your life on. My recommendation? Stay away from this one.



Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: VHS
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older