Alex & Emma

Logic and suspense are victims of writer’s block, but the charm of the two 20-something stars saves this romantic comedy by Rob Reiner. Luke Wilson plays a gambling-addicted writer who has 30 days to pen a novel in order to pay off caricatured Cuban thugs. During an over-the-top death threat, the young author’s laptop gets smashed, so instead of borrowing a friend’s computer, the novelist hires an opinionated stenographer (Kate Hudson). Together the two create a love shack in Wilson’s bachelor pad as they create a book that drips with soap opera sap depicted on-screen through cross-cuts containing campy 1920s set designs. Both stories intertwine and culminate in an obvious finale that is as clear as the Tucson sky, but the always-adorable Hudson and talented Wilson keep the pages turning.