Eventually, Novak crosses paths with high profile journalist-slash-playboy Catcher Block, played by Ewan McGregor (Star Wars Episode: 1, 2 & 3), who is supposed to do a feature on her, but blows her off for some flight attendants. With the help of her publicisit friend, Novak's book becomes the hit of the decade and Block is the only one she WON'T talk to. She goes so far as to denounce the kind of man she is on national television.

Block decides to get back at her by poaing as a southern astronaut, back on leave, looking to make Novak fall in love with him, thus dispelling all the teachings in the "Down with Love" book. A subplot exists with Block's editor, played by David Hyde Pierce (TV's Frasier), attempting to win over Novak's craft publicisit friend.

The concept of this picture was extremely humorous. The production, from first frame to last, was meant to resemble a romantic comedy from the 1940's. Colors were over emphasized, resembling cinematographers fumbling with new color stock film. Actors walked and interacted with a contrived rythum. Supporting characters gave over the top responses to main characters. Even the starting 20th Century Fox logo was a throw back, followed by one of those "filmed in Cinescope" graphic cards.

Socially, the picture attempts to say a lot about women in the work place, which was an issue at the time, but the messages today don't exactly play, since women of our age are now owning and operating large corporations; not a lot, but far more excepted that 1940's.

In the end, the picture's message was urging women to find a happy medium between the high powered working woman and the humble housewife with kids and a home in the suburbs.

"Down with Love" was an extremely creative venture for director Peyton Reed (Bring It On). Some of his sequences were obviously not easy to shoot, particularly a split screen phone conversation, which sort of doubled as a sex scene. You'll have to see it to know what I mean. This is a solid credit for Reed's abilities.

However, much like the romantic comedies of the 1940's, this movie got on my nerves at times. At points, the concept simply exhausted me, and it made me shut down emtionally from it.

Zellweger and McGregor each did great within the picture's style, matching similar performances from film's history in the genre. Pierce was absolutely hilarious and was handed many laugh-out-loud lines. His "character" role played perfectly into this story.

Overall, I really enjoyed "Down with Love" despite its overly feminist tone and throwback style. I can't say if just anyone would dig this pic, but I can at least speak for myself. If you're looking to rent a romantic comedy, this one may be worth grabbing.