Film: Catch and Release

By: Heather Bell

One of my favorite all time movies is the film, “Catch and Release” which stars Jennifer Garner, Timothy Olyphant and Kevin Smith.  It is a romance/drama film set in 2006.  Garner plays Grey, a woman whose fiancé, named Grady, has just died from a tragic skydiving accident.  She is very sad and in mourning because now she does not know what her future will hold.  Many of his friends have arrived for the funeral and stay to keep her company. 

                One night a message is left on Grady’s phone.  It is a young woman named Maureen looking for the child support cheque for a child she and Grady share.  Maureen is not aware that Grady has died.  Grey is very upset about this message because she doesn’t know anything about another woman and especially about the child he fathered. It is revealed that his friend knew about the woman and the child.  Grey ignores the message, thinking Maureen will go away.

                Unexpectedly, Maureen and her son show up at Grady’s house, looking for Grady and more importantly, the support cheque she desperately needs.  Grey is confused about what to think because the woman appears to be likeable.  As well, the child bears a striking resemblance to the father.  Grey’s anger and resentment towards Grady grows and it quickly consumes her every thought.  How could he do this to her?  How long has this been going on?  To exasperate the situation, Grady’s mother blames Grey for her son stepping out on the relationship, stating that ‘a satisfied man doesn’t have affairs with massage therapists.’  Grey doesn’t know who to blame for the situation.

                Since Grady is no longer alive to give Maureen child support payments, his mother agrees to do so, but only once a paternity test is completed to prove that Grady is the father of the child.  On one hand, she doesn’t want to believe that her son would make such a poor decision to get involved with another woman outside of his relationship.  But on the other hand, this child represents the last link to her son whom she desperately misses.  The more time that Maureen and her son spend around Grady’s friends and family, the more they start to accept her.  Perhaps she is not the home wrecker she was initially believed to be.

                Unfortunately, the paternity test comes back that Grady is in fact not the father of the child.  Everyone involved is very confused, except for the child who doesn’t seem to care one way or the other.  Grey finds herself in unfamiliar territory.  She wants to help the child financially because those were Grady’s wishes.  Grey makes an agreement with Grady’s mother, that the child will continue to receive support.

                After much contemplation about what happened in their relationship, Grey decides to let go of the of the anger she felt towards Grady.  She instead chooses to remember the good parts of him and the good parts of the relationship.  She moves on with her life be beginning a romantic relationship with a new partner, one of Grady’s friends.

                This story really stuck with me because it took the main character out of her comfort zone and it threw her in the polar opposite and I liked how Grey dealt with the interpersonal issues. What appealed to me as well is that it gave me a character, several characters actually that I could root for.  As the story went along, my opinions of different characters began to change because I developed empathy for some of them.