Movie Review:

Just My Luck

by Lynn B

See lucky Lindsay get unlucky and go from Prada chic to K-Mart geek.

Ashley Albright (Lindsay Lohan) is the world’s luckiest woman. She’s lucky in love and in her job as a PR gal. She gets a cab without trying, always gets green lights and only rich hotties ask her out. Conveniently stuck in a broken elevator with the rep for a Sean Combs-like record label head (Faizon Love), Ashley pitches an idea involving an elaborate masquerade ball as a charity event and he loves it.

Meanwhile, Jake (Chris Pine) has horrible luck. He manages up and coming British band McFly, and is trying to get their demo to the same record company head. Jake crashes the masquerade as a show dancer and ends up dancing with Ashley. There is instant attraction and, when the two kiss, their luck is exchanged (all this was supposedly set up by a gypsy fortune teller who previously told Ashley that she needed to appreciate her luck of course). Ashley is no longer a charmed one.. her heel breaks, she almost chokes on an olive and she gets arrested for (unknowingly) hiring a professional party boy to date her boss! She’s fired.

Newly lucky Jake saves the life of the record mogul who signs his band and he gets a posh new apartment. Finally, after Ashley is humiliated by having to do Jake’s old job as a janitor at a bowling alley, among other unlucky tortures, she realizes that we make our own luck and, of course, at a big gig for the band, luck switches back as the two kiss again and then they…oh well, go see the movie.

By her own admission, this film is 19-year-old Lindsay’s last tween-aimed movie. She’s moving into more substantial grown-up indie films that show that the girl can actually act when not playing a teen queen (or, in this case, young single gal in the working world). Just My Luck is a fun, reverse Cinderella story (with a happy ending) and you might love it. But, if you have been following Lindsay’s bad press and take a good look at her in this movie, you’ll see that she not only looks older but a little more worn. She’s still a very pretty girl but she’s too skinny (the camera adds pounds) and looks like she could use a few weeks at a health spa.

All that aside, there are some goofy physical comedy scenes (however clichéd) in the film and Lindsay is very good at them.. falls, exploding hair driers, a room full of overflowing washer suds, etc. Chris Pine is a cute and worthy leading man and I enjoyed McFly’s tunes and early Beatle-esque comedy. Samaire Armstrong and Bree Turner make effective, supportive bff’s. If you are a Lindsay fan, certainly go and see this light-hearted film and we’ll all hope that Lindsay can make the transition to fully adult actor without self-destructing.

 

This movie is rated PG-13

Official Movie Web Site - Just My Luck

Pictures courtesy of and copyright 20th Century Fox, 2006