Some surprisingly smart writing and appealing performances from Will Smith and Eva Mendes lift this romantic comedy several notches above the norm. Smith and Mendes both play romantic cynics whose livelihoods depend upon navigating the love lives of others – she's a gossip columnist and he's a "date doctor" who coaches guys on getting girls – and the movie has a good time getting the two together, only to eventually pull them apart (and then, at the last minute – well, you know the rest). The movie's snappy banter and the lively relationship between the lead characters sometimes seems to recall a classic Hollywood screwball romance from the middle of the last century, and even the sporadic attempts at physical comedy are tolerable. It's only in the last act, when narrative clichés began to overwhelm the characters, that Hitch stumbles. Also stars Amber Valletta.
HITCH (PG-13) Opens Feb. 11 at local theaters. 
This article appears in Feb 9-15, 2005.
