Cowboys and Angels -- 2000 -- PG

There's a story that goes with getting this one. My wife had ordered it from Netflix and instead of this little romantic film, we got a film of the same name from 2003. That is a completely different movie. Instead of a lawyer-cowboy, we got a gay drug user. On our third attempt to get this movie, we finally got the right one.

This is a really clever film. It follows a guy who before the story began was dumped the day before his wedding and this event haunts him as he tries to move on. At his sister's wedding, he meets a girl named Jojo who takes him to weddings and tries to open his eyes to the world out there. For some reason, she knows everything about him and knows the people around him too. When he falls for her, she splits and he immediately meets Candace. Now he's going out with someone and hung up on two people.

The enigmatic nature of Jojo along with the sheer curiosity of how this little triangle will play out keeps you going through the film. Pacing is a little off here and there as it works to build character and move the plot through the slim storyline that feels like if all the scenes were cut back to their most essential, it would be a rather short movie. This doesn't really hurt it though because at the end of the film, I like what I've seen.

The director has a good eye for some clever shots. There was one shot where our hero, Danny, is in his kitchen with the new girl, Candace. She has just commented on his keeping up the pictures of the woman who jilted him the day before their wedding. The camera moves around and has a shot of him on one side of the kitchen, Candace on the other side, and right between them is a post from the entry with the picture of the ex. There's a picture that tells more than the dialogue.

Awesome use of sound in some places too. At one point Candace meets Jojo, and Danny comments that "she's the girl..." He stops, but in the background at that very moment, the song playing says, "...who stole my heart." I was floored and pleasantly so.

This is a film that is decent from story perspective, but very good from a filmmaker's perspective. This director knows what he's doing and I just might have to check out some of his other stuff. The movie is worth watching and it even has a little twist at the end that is rather unexpected, but again, in a good way. It ties up all of the loose ends very nicely, and you finish it all up with a good feeling.