Take a stroll through ‘Wicker Park’

“Wicker Park” is a better movie than you’ve probably imagined.

I swear.

It unfortunately suffers from one of the worst advertising campaigns I’ve ever seen; the trailers have touted it as some kind of kidnapping/identity thriller. “She’s in love, and she won’t be ignored!” the booming trailer voice announces.

Looking at the final product, I find these ads utterly incomprehensible. On behalf of the filmmakers, allow me to interject and tell you that there’s no cheesy thriller to this cinematic escapade. At its heart, it’s a tale of tragic misunderstanding and dramatic romance. Furthermore, it’s done fairly well.

To talk about the plot requires some wordplay to avoid revealing details. Matt (Josh Hartnett) is an important executive of some sort—I missed his exact profession, not that it matters—and he’s engaged to Rebecca (Jessica Paré), his boss’s daughter, but he’s become unsure of his path in life.

One day, he hears a young woman’s voice from behind a public phone partition. It reminds him of an old flame, Lisa (Diane Kruger), who broke his heart two years ago by leaving for Europe without a trace. He just barely misses meeting the mystery woman, but it sends him on an obsessive trek to find out why she abandoned their relationship. In his fevered search, he stumbles across another young woman named Lisa (Rose Byrne), whose mystery and unassuming personality attracts Matt... but there’s something off about the girl; she’s hiding something.

Admittedly, that description doesn’t give much indication as to what happens in the film, but watching “Wicker Park” should be a completely fresh experience.

The lead is Josh “Michael Myers is dead!” Hartnett, from such “stunning” films as “Halloween: H20” and “Pearl Harbor.” He’s backed up by Matthew Lillard as his best friend Luke. You may remember Lillard as the stoner idiot from “Scream,” or Shaggy from the “Scooby-Doo” pictures (also a stoner idiot). Understandably, the heart may not leap at hearing those names, but you will be surprised at how well they act under an intelligent script. Mind you, we’re not talking Academy Award caliber here, but just like Ashton Kutcher or Adam Sandler, these actors show some real talent when you finally take them out of their typical element.

There’s some honest, realistic human interaction to be found, which is perhaps the best aspect of “Wicker Park.” Matt tells us how much he was in love with Lisa, and when we see the flashbacks of their romance, we believe him. Even the friendly banter between Luke and Matt feels genuine. In a lesser movie, Luke would have been relegated to the standard best friend role, worth only to give Matt a few words of encouragement and disappear whenever the script called for it. But, as you will find out, he is just as embroiled in the plot as Matt and Lisa are.

However, the care that went into making these characters work is also the film’s greatest folly. Again, I won’t ruin anything for you, but everything ends fairly realistically for the two leads. What about everyone else, though?

The film introduces some fleshed-out, three-dimensional supporting characters, but the movie has forgotten about them by the end. If you’re going to present characters deserving of our attention, make sure that their stories come full circle. The movie is also saddled with too much baggage; while having Matt shirk a fiancé and an important executive job illustrates how obsessed he is, it also adds questions to the scenario that could have been easily avoided.

I admit that I groaned as I entered the theater playing “Wicker Park.” I only had the trailers to inform me about the movie, and I figured that the last thing I needed to see is some pseudo-hip MTV-era thriller. But it threw my expectations off guard and raised my spirits about actors I had long dismissed as cliché performers. Director Paul McGuigan (“Gangster No. 1”) is a largely independent filmmaker hailing from the U.K., and he made a big leap in making “Wicker Park,” not only onto our side of the pond, but also in making a mainstream movie with recognizable names. That he even attempted this feat should imply his bravery. That his film succeeds so well should imply his talent.