By Kit Bowen
Story
There’s nothing wrong with a little good luck. But in the case of Ashley (
Lohan)--a young professional just out of college with a nice job at a PR company, a huge cushy Manhattan apartment, loads of fab clothes, hot guys asking her out, the envy of her best friends (
Samaire Armstrong,
Bree Turner)--luck isn’t the word for it. She can do no
wrong. All that changes, however, when at a costume ball, a masked Ashley kisses a mystery man, Jake (
Chris Pine), who also happens to be one of the most misfortunate guys on the planet, and somehow they swap their luck. Suddenly, her charmed life turns into a living hell, while his gets a LOT better. Ashley is now desperate to find the guy, kiss him again, get her life back and, you know, fall in love with him and junk. Good luck with that.
Acting
You can’t help the girl for trying to branch out a little.
Just My Luck is the appealing
Lohan’s first attempt at mature comedy, and she’s pretty good at the physical stuff--getting electrocuted, falling into mud, dealing with a wayward washing machine. But maybe
Lohan is just a little too young to be playing corporate dress up just yet. I mean, a yuppie career girl just out of college? The 20 year-old actress isn’t even the age range yet. As her friends,
Turner (
Bring It On Again) and
Armstrong (HBO’s
Entourage) are cutesy and supportive, while
Pine (
The Princess Diaries 2) is adequate as the milque-toasty love interest. It’s too bad they didn’t give character actress
Missi Pyle (
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), as Ashley’s snarky boss, more to work with. She’s an untapped comic talent.
Direction
Just My Luck certainly shows a more mature
Lindsay, but it still doesn’t steer too far away from her core teen audience. Director
Donald Petrie, who has a spotty history helming comedies (Good:
Miss Congeniality); Bad:
Welcome to Mooseport), shines the spotlight on his young starlet, turning her into every teenage girl’s fantasy. He shows what life would be like, living it young and large in the Big Apple. And then he turns into a Lucille Ball, with one mishap after another. What he forgot about, however, is making a cohesive film for the rest of us, one that doesn’t lapse into the completely ridiculous. If they think just sticking
Lindsay Lohan in a movie, have her fall all over the place and win the heart of a cute guy, is a way to get everyone to clap their hands in joy and shell out their money to see it again and again, then they are going to be way out of luck on this one.