Film review: Fools Rush In (1997), directed by Andy Tennant

New York architect and workaholic Alex Whitman (Matthew Perry) has gone to Las Vegas to build a nightclub. One night he has a one night stand with photographer Isabel Fuentes (Salma Hayek), and that should have been the end of that, end of story. Alex gets on with his life.

Three months later, they meet again. Isabel is pregnant, and Alex is the father. In order to do the right thing, they get married. As these kind of stories normally go, when two almost strangers get married on a whim they have to get to know each other when they’re husband and wife, and that’s normally a culture clash. On the one hand, straight-laced big-city career man – on the other, free-spirited small-town Mexican woman.

Also starring Jon Tenney as Jeff, Carlos Gómez as Chuy, Tomás Milián as Tomas Fuentes, Siobhan Fallon as Lainie, John Bennett Perry as Richard Whitman, Stanley DeSantis as Judd Marshall, Suzanne Snyder as Cathy Stewart, Anne Betancourt as Amalia Fuentes, and Jill Clayburgh as Nan Whitman.

Overall, Fools Rush In is a pretty standard culture clash romance film. Uptight male and free-spirited female get married and then have to try getting along and survive meeting the parents. They may have started out not loving each other, but you know they’re going to get there in the end, and it will be very cute. And it is.

As a romantic film, yes, it’s romantic and cute and all that you’re looking for in a romantic film. The couple have to learn to accept each other’s different takes on things (like home décor) and eventually realise that they can’t live without each other. Sorry, was that a spoiler? Let’s face it, the thing we love about romantic films is that we know how they’re going to end and this is no exception.

If you’re looking to pass the time, this will do nicely, but it’s not exceptional.

3 out of 5 hard hats.