Freddie ("She's All That") Prinze Jr., and Julia ("10 Things I Hate About You") Stiles are attending a New York City college when they discover each other one night in a trendy bar and experience love at first sight. Not long after Imogen (Stiles) and Al (Prinze) shack up, the anxieties of living together take a toll on the 'tingles' of the true love that they felt when they first met. Their relationship runs aground when Imogen fears that she is pregnant. Later, they split up when Imogen has a one-night stand with another student that resembles late legendary musician Jim Morrison. A few years pass, and Imogen and Al rekindle the old flame or 'tingles' as they referred to them about their first love. The surprises are few and far between in this romance as the sparks.
The major flaw in writer & director Kris Iascsson's directorial debut is that his characters lack vitality, and their story skirts conflict. Nothing unique happens in this breezy but thoroughly predictable boy-wins-girl, boy-loses-girl, and boy-wins-girl back plot. Essentially, "Down To You" qualifies as a lite, twentysomething's version of the Bruce Willis & Michelle Pfeiffer soaper "The Story of Us" without the sizzle. If comedy broadens character, drama sharpens it. "The Story of Us" dealt with the ups and downs of a relationship. Nothing that either Imogen or Al do in "Down To You" is calculated to make us feel either love or hate for them. Indeed, Prinze and Stiles are as cute but just as plastic as Barbie and Ken dolls. They go through the motions without ever showing any genuine emotions.
You know a movie is in trouble when the supporting characters are more interesting than the protagonists. Henry Winkler of "Fonz" fame from "Happy Days" has a field day as Freddie's loony father, Chef Ray, and he steals every scene he has with his rambunctious wit. The best scene in "Down To You" concerns a father and son TV show that Chef Ray pitches to Al. Chef Ray wants to produce 'Cooks,' a gourmet parody of the gritty reality based Fox TV show "Cops" where Al and he invade homes with a platoon of cooks at random and conjure up meals from scratch for the surprised occupants.
The second best scene occurs when Al dreams about being a guest on a macho male talk show segment where tough guys ridicule his sensitive man routine. This is the closest thing to genuine comedy that Iascsson comes up with here, especially when one of the guys warns Al "to cross your legs because your panties are showing." Actually, Al lets Imogen wear the pants in their relationship. She steps out on Al, and he throws a tantrum when she tells himself about her infidelity. Things would have been hotter had Al caught Imogen in the sack with her lover, but then "Down To You" would have gotten pretty raunchy.
Al and Imogen's friends provide some welcome relief with their comic antics. Al's pal Monk (Zak Orth of "In & Out") a porno star & director and supplies the frat lectures to everybody about the necessity for hot, sweaty sex. Monk probably displays more character development than anybody else in "Down To You." The next time that we see him, Monk has turned into an Orson Welles type auteur and is making Shakespeare movies. In a slight, throwaway role, Lucy Arnaz, the real-life daughter of Lucille Ball, plays Al's mother.
Freshman writer & director Kris Iascsson does everything that he can to keep things light and effervescent without descending into harsh reality. He makes even more mistakes by telling "Down To You" in a series of flashbacks with both characters addressing the audience directlyin other words, breaking the fourth wallas in either "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" or "Annie Hall." Freddie Prinze Jr. and Julia Stiles appear to be stooping in "Down To You" after scoring respectively in winning comedies such as "She's All That" and "10 Things I Hate About You." Unless you've never seen a teenage romantic comedy, skip this weepie. Oh, yes, at least, the soundtrack is worth buying, even if the movie vanishes from your memory the next day.
