Romantic Comedy

Love Happens announces itself as a romantic comedy but doesn't speak the language of love. Instead, it trades in the slogans of self-help procedural. The film unfolds during a weekend seminar in Seattle where Burke Ryan (Aaron Eckhart), mental-health guru, belatedly swallows advice he dispenses to others. Burke is one of those publicly charismatic, privately brooding fellows who preaches what he cannot practice. Though he counsels others to accept that there is life after a loved one's death, Burke is in prolonged mourning for his late wife.

Fergus is a musician who journeys south to "The Smoke" (Northern England's disdainful nickname for London) to try to find the woman he jilted years before. Standing on the balcony of a London apartment in Born Romantic, Fergus simply bellows her name into the night. As a method for finding a needle in a haystack it may be crazy, but the most amusing observation of David Kane's droll comedy is that Fergus' howls for his erstwhile love have as much chance of landing the right partner as any other gambit.

Mildly diverting but slight, the screwball comedy Gray Matters changes it up, more or less creating its own genre, the curveball farce. Gray and Sam (Heather Graham and Tom Cavanagh) are the perfect Manhattan couple, long-limbed, drop-dead gorgeous professionals (she's in advertising, he's a medical resident) who would stop traffic if New York weren't already gridlocked. Gray and Sam, I should mention, are siblings. Sam is ready for a romantic partner. Gray, who ditzes and dithers like Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally.

In Russian Doll, Katia is an attractive immigrant from St. Petersburg and a mail-order bride who comes to Sydney only to discover on her arrival that her fiance is dead. The Australian import goes on to prove that Hollywood has no monopoly on romantic comedy in which a tone of lame amiability doesn't compensate for lack of invention. Stavros Kazantzidis' movie has two things going for it - an earthy Australian cynicism and Hugo Weaving, the Aussie who made his mark in The Matrix and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

THE KIDDIE audience might not recognize the voice of the Pirate Captain in "Pirates: Band of Misfits!" but it belongs to Hugh Grant. Older viewers might not recognize it either — it's been three years since Grant has made a movie. His last was "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" Grant's one-billionth romantic comedy, and a project apparently so awful it soured him on movies completely. Luring him back was a guy named Peter Lord, head of the Aardman Studios in England, the Claymation specialists known for "Wallace and Gromit," and their quirky British sense of humor.

A likable comedy and a satirical comedy with serious overtones are the best bets among the many new videos this week. HIGH SEASON (1988) (Nelson) $79.98. 95 minutes. Jacqueline Bisset, James Fox, Irene Papas, Kenneth Branagh. An amiable lark of a movie starring that amiable lark of an actress, Jacqueline Bisset, set on the Greek isle of Rhodes (vividly shot by Oscar winner Chris Menges). Writer-director Clare Peploe offers an arch, breezy comedy about rampant tourism and true love, punctuated with moonlight swims and balalaika rave-ups and populated by a fine group of actors.

Julie and Jason are a couple contemplating "cheating. " OK, they aren't really a couple. They're New York neighbors, best friends since college. So the cheating isn't what you think either. Julie (Jennifer Westfeldt) and Jason (Adam Scott) are both in their 30s and both want kids. It's just that they want them without what they see are the pitfalls that face all their Friends With Kids. Marriages strained to the breaking point, the loss of romance and freedom, the seismic shift in priorities.

LOS ANGELES - Greg Berlanti rushes into his office on the Disney lot, insisting that he's never, ever late. He's so emphatic it's easy to believe him, but it's also easy to understand why he might be running behind these days. The writer-producer-director - whose TV resume includes acclaimed programs such as "Everwood" and "Brothers & Sisters" - is juggling a dizzying number of projects. He has just launched the ABC series "No Ordinary Family," and he directed "Life as We Know It," a romantic comedy opening tomorrow.

Erectile dysfunction, anyone? That's certainly what the title Failure to Launch suggests. And metaphorically speaking, it's what this apocalyptically awful romantic comedy is the equivalent of, too. Apart from its name (easily the front-runner for worst of the year), Failure to Launch represents a failure in every way: of ideas, of inspiration, of casting. Matthew McConaughey, continuing his trip down the hype-paved path of least resistance, stars as a 35-year-old Baltimore dude named Tripp.

THE KIDDIE audience might not recognize the voice of the Pirate Captain in "Pirates: Band of Misfits!" but it belongs to Hugh Grant. Older viewers might not recognize it either — it's been three years since Grant has made a movie. His last was "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" Grant's one-billionth romantic comedy, and a project apparently so awful it soured him on movies completely. Luring him back was a guy named Peter Lord, head of the Aardman Studios in England, the Claymation specialists known for "Wallace and Gromit," and their quirky British sense of humor.

BENT. 9 and 9:30 p.m. tomorrow, NBC 10. THE WAY NBC'S treating its newest show, "Bent," you'd think it was ashamed to be seen with it. Unfortunately titled — if you miss the explanation in the pilot, you may not catch it again — and even more unfortunately scheduled — in back-to-back episodes for three weeks, following "Are You There, Chelsea?" and opposite ABC's "Modern Family" and Fox's "American Idol" — "Bent" isn't so much being added to NBC's lineup tomorrow as burned off. Which is strange, because this unexpectedly charming, well-cast romantic comedy from Tad Quill ("Scrubs," "Spin City")

THE WAY NBC'S treating its newest show, "Bent," you'd think it was ashamed to be seen with it. Unfortunately titled — if you miss the explanation in the pilot, you may not catch it again — and even more unfortunately scheduled — in back-to-back episodes for three weeks, following "Are You There, Chelsea?" and opposite ABC's "Modern Family" and Fox's "American Idol" — "Bent" isn't so much being added to NBC's lineup tomorrow as burned off. Which is strange, because this unexpectedly charming, well-cast romantic comedy from Tad Quill ("Scrubs," "Spin City")

Julie and Jason are a couple contemplating "cheating. " OK, they aren't really a couple. They're New York neighbors, best friends since college. So the cheating isn't what you think either. Julie (Jennifer Westfeldt) and Jason (Adam Scott) are both in their 30s and both want kids. It's just that they want them without what they see are the pitfalls that face all their Friends With Kids. Marriages strained to the breaking point, the loss of romance and freedom, the seismic shift in priorities.

To describe "Just Go With It" as another failed romantic comedy would imply that at one time it wanted to succeed as romantic comedy. I doubt that's true. Star Adam Sandler and collaborator/director Denis Dugan don't really care if they conform to rom-com standards and practices. To Sandler Inc., "Just Go With It" is a forum for his freewheeling lowbrow brand (this movie makes "Little Fockers" look erudite), one that's increasingly unhinged from form and unregulated by taste. It's either proof of civilization's decline or underappreciated Dadaist genius.

Theater All in the Timing Six one-act plays that offer a humorous look at relationships. Allens Lane Art Center, 601 W. Allens Ln.; Box Office: 215-248-0546. $18 advance; $20 day of show. Closes 10/16. Aurelia's Oratorio Acrobatics, illusion, puppetry, clowning & astonishing movement. Princeton University - McCarter Theatre, 91 University Pl., Princeton; 609-258-2787 (ARTS). $20-$65. Closes 10/17. Azuka Theatre: Neighborhood 3 - Requisition of Doom A group of suburban teens get addicted to an online horror video game & the line between real & virtual life begins to blur.

LOS ANGELES - Greg Berlanti rushes into his office on the Disney lot, insisting that he's never, ever late. He's so emphatic it's easy to believe him, but it's also easy to understand why he might be running behind these days. The writer-producer-director - whose TV resume includes acclaimed programs such as "Everwood" and "Brothers & Sisters" - is juggling a dizzying number of projects. He has just launched the ABC series "No Ordinary Family," and he directed "Life as We Know It," a romantic comedy opening tomorrow.

HOLLYWOOD - In the tradition of Joan Blondell, Billie Burke and Carole Lombard, Katherine Heigl is a gorgeous blonde who loves making movie audiences laugh. Her favorite genre is the romantic comedy. She likes watching them almost as much as she likes making them. Though she is best known for playing Dr. Isobel "Izzie" Stevens on the ABC medical drama "Grey's Anatomy," Heigl has carved out a niche for herself on the big screen over the past few years in romantic comedies. Her calling began with 2007's "Knocked Up," the Judd Apatow-directed comedy in which she played a TV entertainment reporter who is impregnated by a ne'er-do-well slob (played by Seth Rogen)

Love Happens announces itself as a romantic comedy but doesn't speak the language of love. Instead, it trades in the slogans of self-help procedural. The film unfolds during a weekend seminar in Seattle where Burke Ryan (Aaron Eckhart), mental-health guru, belatedly swallows advice he dispenses to others. Burke is one of those publicly charismatic, privately brooding fellows who preaches what he cannot practice. Though he counsels others to accept that there is life after a loved one's death, Burke is in prolonged mourning for his late wife.