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Bob Rueland (David Duchovny) and his wife Elizabeth (Joely Richardson) live in Chicago. He's an architect. She works in Lincoln Park Zoo. Ms. Hunt establishes their great love for one another as they move through their day toward a benefit dinner to raise funds for a new primate habitat. These scenes are intercut with those at a hospital where Grace Briggs (Minnie Driver) is dying of heart failure. Grace desperately needs a heart transplant and the viewer immediately senses how the lives of these three people are about to collide. Over the course of the next several hours, Elizabeth will suffer a fatal head injury in an automobile accident and Grace will receive her heart. Bob is devastated by his loss, but as Elizabeth's heart starts beating in Grace's chest miles away in a hospital surgical suite, we're left with the impression that Bob can almost sense it.

A year later, the once gracious and friendly Bob has been altered by grief into a hard-driving grouch. He's focused exclusively on the completion of the new primate habitat for which his wife had campaigned so hard. Grace is doing well, grateful for a second chance for life, but she, too, is withdrawn. She's concerned that dating will ultimately reveal her transplant, and she doesn't want to be defined by it. She and Bob meet quite by accident in a family-run restaurant called O'Reilly's Italian Restaurant (I understand the menu is rather eclectic) where she waitresses and he's with the blind date from hell. There's an instant attraction, but neither is comfortable dating and neither acts on the feeling.

When he eventually finds the courage to ask her out, she finds the courage to accept. And as we watch their romance blossom, it transforms them both. Bob regains his humanity and she finds a happiness that her illness had denied her for years. All goes well until Grace discovers that it's Elizabeth's heart that's beating in her chest, and as she fears, it does come between them. Will Bob and Grace find happiness together? Will the good-natured if meddlesome grandfathers in her life, Marty O'Reilly (Carroll O'Connor) and Angelo Pardipillo (Robert Loggia), help heal their wounds?

Don't think I've given away too much, these plot points are very predictable and any viewer will have anticipated them long before they occur. The appeal of this film is the winning performances by Mr. Duchovny and Ms. Driver. We become invested in their lives. Ms. Hunt has inflicted pain on both characters, making them simultaneously sympathetic and very likable. We want them to live happily ever after. Ms. Hunt and Mr. Lake pepper the proceedings with lots of gentle humor and genuine affection. Of note are Grace's friends, Megan (Bonnie Hunt) and Joe Dayton (James Belushi), whose son is a sponge for any phrase scatological. The film is warm and charming and will please your romantic side.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film's theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 is presented in anamorphic video. The transfer is quite good. There is a slight halo effect around objects of high contrast, but these edge artifacts are not intrusive. The color palette is well conveyed and without chroma noise. The garden behind the restaurant where Grace paints is a believable green. Flesh tones are very natural. Night scenes feature deep rich blacks and good shadow detail. Modest film grain is present in some scenes, but that simply reinforces the illusion of film. I didn't notice any compression artifacts. In general, a very decent transfer.

Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is fine. Significant sound effects and surround effects would be misplaced in this little romance. No deep bass of any note is present. Nicholas Pike's score and the featured songs are presented across a broad soundstage with a pleasing fidelity. I have the impression that the music has been bled into the surrounds to widen its presentation. The dialog is always perfectly understandable and, in more intimate scenes, presented with a nice, forward-sounding presence.

An alternate language Spanish track is available in Dolby Digital 2.0, and the audio is supported by French and Spanish subtitles and English Closed Captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Special features are rather thin on this release. There is a screen-specific audio commentary with director Bonnie Hunt and her co-writer Don Lake. Ms. Hunt has a rather wry sense of humor and she delights in teasing both her CO-writer and the listener. It adds a level of charm to the commentary track that's rarely heard. Ms. Hunt dominates the track, occasionally discussing the filmmaking process (like the helicopter shot in the opening sequence), but she tends to focus elsewhere. She describes why she made certain artistic decisions. She offers interesting anecdotes from the set. And she reveals the startling amount of nepotism that runs through the film.

A deleted scene running about three and a half minutes features Carroll O'Connor, Robert Loggia, and friends sitting around the card table, debating the merits of songsters or ballplayers from their pasts. They'll eventually break into song, "Danny Boy." There are sufficiently similar scenes within the film to establish the characters and their interrelationships, so this sequence is best left as a supplement. It's shown in non-anamorphic letterbox video. Finally, there's a full screenmusic video based on Joseph Gian's rendition of "What If I Loved You." The most familiar standard special features of a theatrical trailer and cast & crew notes are missing. There are thirty-two chapter stops.

DVD- ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM extras have been included.

Parting Thoughts