Synopsis
Nate Shepherd, late 40's, and Jenny Sparks, early 30's, meet in a fancy New York eatery. Complete strangers who have had a rotten day, waiting for their better halves, they reveal to one another that they are going to meet new people tonight. They quickly realize they are waiting for each other. When Nate loses his girlfriend (after getting fired from his cushy job at an ad agency) and Jenny loses her boyfriend to a drug overdose, Nate's girlfriend suggests that they should move in together as friends to split the rent and ease each others pain. As their friendship grows into something more, their relationship becomes a loving but complicated experience.
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Cast
- Steve GuttenbergNate Shepard
- Milena GovichJenny Sparks
- Shannon ElizabethAdi Schwartz
- Matthew Del NegroBuddy Andrews
- Maddie CormanAlexandra Dumar
- Jeff RossDouglas Silver
- Kelly BishopLily Sparks
- James A. StephensWill Sparks
- Wass StevensSam Steele
- Audra BlaserRaines
Recommendations
- 40
Village Voice
Cohabitation "commandments" and talk of "chick flicks" further send the material into a cutesy tailspin, with the script's low point an egregious scene featuring Nate sneaking a peek at a silhouette of Jenny undressing behind a curtain. - 40
The New York Times
Steve Guttenberg is probably supposed to be a lovable loser in A Novel Romance, a drab, clumsy film by Allie Dvorin, but he can manage to be merely annoying. Mr. Guttenberg, though, deserves only part of the blame for this unrewarding movie. - 30
Variety
Grotesquely straining to ridicule and validate its hero simultaneously, A Novel Romance will disappoint even Guttenberg diehards. - 25
Slant Magazine
For a film about writing a novel, A Novel Romance is surprisingly shallow in regard to its characters and superficial in terms of its chapter-structured façade. - 0
New York Post
Wince-worthy as Guttenberg is, he cannot be accused of being worse than the amateurish direction and the trite script (both by Allie Dvorin) stuffed with insufferable romcom banter and putrid dirty jokes. Some films go straight to video; this one should have bypassed that step and headed for the incinerator.
