What an abysmal waste of Amy Adams, is all I can say.

I was really looking forward to this movie. I don’t know why; I guess after the string of highly enjoyable romantic comedies we had over the past couple of years (Definitely, Maybe, Penelope, PS I Love You, etc.) I was expecting, I don’t know; some sort of quality. And I absolutely adore Amy Adams—in everything from Enchanted to Doubt to Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day—so there was that factor of expectancy as well. (Spoilers ahead.)

But I should’ve known better. Didn’t I suffer through The Proposal, Valentine’s Day, and several other rom-com flops (well, flops in my opinion—many did very well at the box office) this year? Didn’t I already decide that 2010 was not going to be the year of the decent tearjerker, but of the banal, humorless waste of reel?

The heart of the film reeked. A woman was so desperate to be married that she followed her boyfriend around the world to propose on a tradition—because, of course, heaven forbid she do so in her own country! Then when he turns the tables and asks her—during a time when she’s apparently fallen for a guy who isn’t even all that appealing on the way to meet up with him—it turns out that he only does so because it helps them get an apartment. How romantic! Of course, he has to have something about him that sucks, since he is, after all, a seemingly better catch than the true love interest in the film.

Dull, expected humor ensues as Adams tries to meet up with the man of her dreams by the date tradition dictates. Being paired up with a very disagreeable man—who, of course, has a “dark past” that supposedly makes it all okay, and he’s so mysterious and she can change him and bladdy-blah—could turn into an interesting story, except for the fact that it doesn’t. It’s predictable, not very funny, and not clever at all, unlike a couple of the films I listed earlier.

On the superficial level, the movie didn’t even work out. You need a hunky, at least endearing in some way guy; I really felt that Matthew Goode fell short on both accounts. Even at the end, when Adams pours her heart out to him, he still responds in his trademark jackass fashion. The audience may think that in the last few moments he redeems himself—as we know will happen; after all, it is a romantic comedy—but I disagree. I thought his complete disregard for Adams’ character (and the movie is so forgettable that I don’t even recall either of their names in it, even after watching it just recently) was complete even to the end.

I will still continue to look forward to movies with Adams in them, but I will proceed with caution when it comes to this genre.