Meet Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor) he's a "ladies man, man's man, man about town" type of guy, and Barbara (Renée Zellweger) is more of a man's woman, all decked in pink but independent. She wrote the book on how to live life without a man. Literally.

"Down with Love" is an ode to the sex films of the 1960s. Down to the fashions, feminism, and sex talk à la "Pillow Talk"(1959). It even stars Tony Randall too. It is a gorgeous film, with a lot of pink, a sexy leading man, and a lot of sexual innuendos. But compared to the Judd Apatow sex comedies of the 2000s, this is tame. Well silly and way over-the-top, but still pretty tame.

McGregor is gorgeous as the sexy leading man and Zellweger is pink-ified as the feminist leading woman. They have their fair share of sex jokes, gender stereotypes and ruses, but it's also really funny. "Down with Love" is a fun romp through 2003 disguised as 1962.

16 May 2003. This amazing satire of all the great Doris Day, Rock Hudson - and any of the other fabulously tacky, wacky comedy romances of the 1950s are captured in this contemporary but exaggerated version of the actual style of the genre of this period. Whether or not this movie will find a popular home and an audience beyond those who can appreciate its intent of making Down with Love what Chicago did for the musical, Renee does it again. This light hearted, somewhat more convoluted version of the battle of the sexes really hits all the comedic buttons (without any Jerry Lewis physical comedy).

The color, the acting, the directing, customs all bring back the entire era of the early 60s - like Leslie Neilsen who was able to play on the antics of earlier wacky comedies, Down with Love plays the riot act with all the stereotypical romance movies of an era of the end of the movie studios, contract stars and uses a drawn out ending with a more political correct message for today's contemporary audience.

While a brilliant rendition, there was a constant background noise of how dorky and phony this movie really was, but strangely in some ways it is a tribute to the success of exposing all the dated mannerism of a romance era of past movie that Down with Love really does shine in its authenticity.

In my mind a good parody is always also an homage to its source material. Instead of just pointing, mocking and laughing, it respects its predecessors and while it gently pokes fun at their mistakes and general silliness, it also pays tribute to their strong points. And that's this film. It's both a parody and a love letter to those romantic comedies of the mid-century Hollywood where men and women had clearly defined roles, every background was painted, the cars were driven by madly spinning the wheel from one side to the other even though the road was perfectly straight and every single line was delivered with a suave and cocky grin on one's face.

And as far as parodies or even movies in general go, this isn't a bad example. It has a very strong visual style, with bright, colourful sets, which feel very nostalgic, great score, clever if a bit dirty sense of humour, especially when it comes to visual humour, and a good cast of actors. Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor especially were very good in their roles and they had good chemistry together. McGregor in particular was prefect for the role of Catcher Block, a suave ladies man, who simply oozes self-confidence and charisma.

I had no complaints about the story either, though it wasn't the film's strongest point. It's clever and witty most of the time and the scenes flow smoothly from one to another, but it had perhaps one twist too many for me to fully enjoy it. I wouldn't call it needlessly complicated, but it's not far.

In the end I have to admit that I had a blast watching this film. It's more about the experience and the individual scenes than it is about the story, but in this case it's not a bad thing. If you're looking for a movie with great sense of humour, enjoyable characters, witty dialogues and bright colour scheme, this is definitely your film.