3 out of 10
 

"Sweet November" is a remake of a film of the same title in the 1960`s, and wow, how it shows its age, for without acceptance of it`s relatively left-wing, (then revolutionary values), the whole story is just irritating and meaningless, other than as a warning not to trust women who throw themselves blindly at you. For central to the plot is the hippy concept that organized office work takes people away from "themselves" and that advertising is the biggest waste of time of all. Professional dog-walker, Sara Deever has therefore dedicated her life to levering people out of their office and suit environment and turning them into more affable people by providing a strict one month of "relationship" (or "free love" as it was called then).

Nelson Moss is just such a target for her as a busy, stressed out advertising executive and she first attracts his attention by messing up his exam to get his driving licence back, and despite his irritation, persuades him to move in with her, just for November. Most people now, with any brains would run a mile, but in the story, Nelson does indeed do so and soon strikes up a relationship with her, only to suffer in the second, darker half of the film, as he makes a number of painful discoveries about Charlize, not the least of which is that, come-what-may, she is certain to dump him by the 30th.

With a real life romance rumoured between Charlize Thieron (playing Sara) and Keanu Reaves (playing Nelson), one suspects that this might have been the inspiration for Keanu to have left his usual genre of action for this little flick, for I`m stumped to see any other reason. Supported by a cast of obscuros, most of whom are less real that the fake elevators they created in a warehouse for the movie, Keanu`s acting is way better than such a film deserves. Charlize Thieron, meanwhile, is not just sweet, but so "cutesie", that, by the end of the film, when her character has so changed by the end of the November, she has simply come across as typecast as a shallow, manipulative phony and left me wanting to congratulate Nelson on seeing the back of her.

Set in San Francisco, it provides a perfect backdrop for romance, yet still, with little more than a lame attempt at humour in the first half, it remains a romantic comedy with no comedy and a romance out of tune with today`s world.