Gray Matters

Review By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com

As moviegoers know, the romantic comedy is one of film’s oldest and most beloved genre and therefore, many of them released today have concepts recycled time and time again from as far back as Hollywood’s Golden Age.

It’s always admirable when a filmmaker and/or screenwriter comes along to breathe fresh new life into such a timeworn genre of film. However, not every great new idea translates into a great film and Gray Matters unfortunately is an example of this.

Gray (Heather Graham) and Sam (Tom Cavanagh) are close-knit siblings who share a Manhattan apartment together and are virtually inseparable. In an attempt to meet potential significant others, the two pose as dog walkers at a park and cross paths with the newly-moved Charlie (Bridget Moynahan).

After the three spend an evening out together, Sam and Charlie become instantly smitten with each other and decide to spontaneously get married in Vegas. However, the wild fun soon turns problematic for Gray when, after she and Charlie get drunk the night before the wedding and briefly make out, she discovers she’s not only gay, but in love with her brother’s newly-minted wife.

When she discusses the matter with her therapist Dr. Sydney (Sissy Spacek), she tells Gray the incident was possibly a psychosomatic reaction to feeling of separation anxiety from her brother. As a result, Gray ends up in denial not only about her feelings for the same sex, but particularly those for her new sister-in-law.

After a string of bad dates with several men, she begins to bond with a charming cab driver named Gordy (Alan Cumming) who’s infatuated with her. He soon makes Gray realize she has to face the truth about her feelings.

Gray Matters is extremely admirable in its attempts to present a unique twist to the tried-and-true romantic comedy formula. However, the movie, while breezy and fun enough, is incredibly hamstrung by not only casting Heather Graham as the lead, but an ill-conceived script.

The script from the start doesn’t nearly work as well as it should. The story’s development suffers from an incredible degree of improbability to the point where it’s often difficult to suspend disbelief.

Making matters worse is the casting choice of Heather Graham as the film’s central character. While Graham is always amiable, she is woefully miscast to carry this film as her performance suffers from being rather numb.

Special Features:

The DVD’s picture quality is in the 1:85:1 widescreen aspect ratio, with the sound quality in Dolby Digital Surround 5.1. The sole bonus feature included with this is the behind-the-scenes featurette Making Gray Matters. While the interviews from writer/director Sue Kramer and the cast are welcome, they are scant and are merely edited with the film’s theatrical trailer.

While Gray Matters is admirable for attempting to try something new with a romantic comedy, the film completely misfires by not only a poorly put together script, but by its choice of
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