Why I Love "Catch & Release"

I missed seeing Catch & Release in the cinema in that 2006/2007 England vortex [Jennifer Garner is highly underrated (see also 13 Going On 30) and I have had a long-standing crush on Timothy Olyphant (ever since Girl Next Door), so I wanted to see the movie for those reasons alone, never mind the fact that it looked like a sweet romcom], but finally got caught up with it in 2010 as one of my early Netflix selections. I can't believe it took me so long, because I connected with this film very quickly, once the initial exposition was over and the character of Gray started fitting back into her own life.

Catch & Release was not at all what I was expecting it to be (Kevin Smith was even kind of adorable and not annoying!). The romcom is only one small part of the story; the movie is actually about how people create their own families and truly support each other through bad times and good.

As an only child with few close cousins or other family around me growing up, I have been piecing together my own "family" for quite some time. In this film, be it death, suicide attempts, or surprise illegitimate children, all the characters are there to support each other, truly care for one another, and push each other to have the courage to embrace change for the better, no matter what other drama may be going on in the background. This is not just an oh-how-convenient-that-everyone-lives-in-the-same-house situation; these characters would be there for one another even if they all lived in different parts of town.

This movie speaks to a social structure that is becoming more common for GenY and Millennials. As more of us move, and settle, away from the places we grew up, our "families" become more non-traditional, made up of those we can trust in our best times and in our worst. Catch & Release isn't really a love story, it's a story about the importance of being present in one's own life as well as in the lives of others.