Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman in "Kate & Leopold."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a: Stars: Meg Ryan, Hugh Jackman Director: James Mangold Rated: PG-13, profanity Length: 123 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(December 21, 2001) -- In Sleepless in Seattle, Meg Ryan was romanced from across the country; in Kate & Leopold, the wooing crosses the centuries.

James Mangold's Kate & Leopold is an elegant but uneven time-travel fantasy with Ryan as a cynical 21st-century ad executive who gets swept off her feet by a romantic gentleman from the 19th century.

He's played by the oh-so-handsome Aussie Hugh Jackman (of X-Men and Swordfish).

The film opens in Manhattan in 1876, at the dedication of the spanking-new Brooklyn Bridge. Leopold (Jackman) is a visiting English nobleman in search of a bride.

At a society ball that night, we learn his family has fallen on hard times and needs an influx of cash from a nouveau riche American family. Leopold's to get the cash through marriage.

But Leopold spots a strangely dressed man at the party with a tiny camera and chases him from the mansion onto the nearby Brooklyn Bridge. The stranger (Liev Schreiber) is Stuart, an amateur scientist from our time who has discovered "portals" to leap through time.

Both men jump from the bridge into such a portal -- and end up in today's New York City. Stuart, of course, has simply gone home, but the astonished Leopold is in a new world of hustle-bustle madness that's sorely lacking the etiquette and graces of the Victorian Age.

But it's also where he meets Kate (Ryan), Stuart's lovely ex-girlfriend who lives in the same apartment building. At this point, Kate & Leopold takes on the trappings of conventional romantic comedy. Kate juggles the affections of others, including her somewhat-lecherous boss (Bradford Whitford), with her growing curiosity about the 19th-century nobleman who has stumbled into her life.

She begins to yearn for a simpler, more thoughtful and romantic time -- and for the man who symbolizes it for her.

Kate & Leopold is one of those films that only has a chance if you don't analyze it much. (If you do, you'll wonder about Leopold's wardrobe, since he didn't have time to pack for his trip.)

More importantly, you'll wonder about Kate's thought processes: Does she really think she'd be happier in an age when she'd have to forego her career, women's liberation and so much more? I suspect the bloom will one day disappear from this particular romantic rose.

But, there I go, ignoring my own dictum. Roll with the fantasy, and it's possible to enjoy yourself -- modestly -- with Kate & Leopold. That's mostly because of the film's strongest element: its casting.

The undeniably appealing Ryan has established herself as one of the two great queens of romantic comedy (along with Julia Roberts), and the charismatic Jackman also demonstrates a flair for the form.

They offer just enough winning charm to offset the film's misguided logic.