A Lot Like Love is a 2005 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Nigel Cole and starring Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet. The screenplay by Colin Patrick Lynch focuses on two individuals whose relationship slowly evolves from lust to friendship to romance over the course of seven years.

Plot

Constructed as a series of chapters that take place at a turning point in each character s life, the story moves from seven years in the past, to three years, to two, and finally arrives in the present day.

Emily Friehl and Oliver Martin s first encounter is on a flight from Los Angeles to New York City. Impulsive, she jumps him in the restroom. Later she s aloof, but they cross paths again in the city and they spend a bit of time walking around, taking random shots with his camera.

Oliver hopes of becoming an Internet entrepreneur and, certain of his future success, gives Emily his mother s phone number. He suggests she call him in six years to see if his prediction came true.

Three years later, facing the prospect of spending New Year s Eve alone as she s just been dumped, Emily finds Oliver s number as she s rifling through her little address book. She calls him, and they meet for dinner. Emily takes him to a big New Years party with her friends. Seeing her most recent ex, she gets really drunk and leaves with Oliver. She passes out, but she wakes in the morning, he s already left for San Francisco.

Thus starts a series of reunions with the passing of time, as each drifts in and out of relationships with others. Oliver and his business partner Jeeter develop their on-line diaper service, and Emily becomes a successful photographer.

Each time they meet they take turns, where one appears to be settled and content while the other is struggling to make headway in both life and career. Eventually, they come to the realization that each is exactly the person the other one needs for fulfillment.

A few years later, Emily gets engaged, but she still has feelings for Oliver. The night before she s meant to move in with her fiancé, after developing a old roll of film of when she met Oliver, she breaks it off. Then, her sister later sees Oliver at the drapers, getting fitted for a tux and thinks he s getting married.

Upset, Emily goes to track down Oliver, who s at a wedding at his parent s house. He asks her what is she doing here, at his sister s wedding. Seeing Emily s tears, Oliver wraps his arms around her, saying it was always you.

Cast

• Ashton Kutcher as Oliver Martin
• Amanda Peet as Emily Friehly
• Kathryn Hahn as Michelle
• Kal Penn as Jeeter
• Ali Larter as Gina
• Taryn Manning as Ellen Martin
• Tyrone Giordano as Graham Martin
• Amy Aquino as Diane Martin
• Gabriel Mann as Peter
• Jeremy Sisto as Ben Miller
• Moon Bloodgood as Bridget
• Sam Pancake as Hipster at Party
• Norman Reedus as Emily s Ex At Airport (Uncredited)

Production

The film was shot on location in New York City, Los Angeles, and Antelope Valley.

Music

A Lot like Love (Music from the Motion Picture)
Soundtrack album by Various artists
Released	April 12, 2005
Label	Columbia Records

A soundtrack album for the film was released by Columbia Records on April 12, 2005.

Track list

No.	Title	Artists	Length
1.	Semi-Charmed Life	Third Eye Blind	4:27
2.	Walkin on the Sun	Smash Mouth	3:25
3.	Save Tonight	Eagle Eye Cherry	3:52
4.	Mint Car	The Cure	3:29
5.	Mad About You	Hooverphonic	3:43
6.	Trouble	Ray Lamontagne	3:59
7.	Know Nothing	Travis	2:59
8.	If You Leave Me Now	Chicago	3:56
9.	Brighter Than Sunshine	Aqualung	4:01
10.	Hands of Time	Groove Armada	4:21
11.	Look What You ve Done	Jet	3:50
12.	Breathe (2 AM)	Anna Nalick	4:39
13.	Maybe It s Just Me	Butch Walker	3:20

Critical reception

A Lot like Love received mixed reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 41%, based on 125 reviews, with an average rating of 4.95/10. The site s consensus states: A tiresome rom-com.

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times said the film isn t half bad and every so often is pretty good, filled with real sentiment, worked-through performances and a story textured enough to sometimes feel a lot like life. If nothing else, A Lot Like Love is a pleasant reminder of a Hollywood time, seemingly long gone, when boy met girl in a midlevel romantic comedy without arty aspirations . . . or low-brow yucks.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times observed, The movie is 95 minutes long, and neither character says a single memorable thing. You ve heard of being too clever by half? Ollie and Emily are not clever enough by three-quarters . . . To call A Lot like Love dead in the water is an insult to water. . Ebert awarded the film one out four stars, and ultimately included it in his list of Most Hated Films .

Ruthe Stein of the San Francisco Chronicle said, An unfortunate casting decision . . . comes close to sabotaging a witty script . . . As the sometimes couple, Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet are together in almost every scene, making it difficult to conceal the huge gap in their acting skills. Bland and with a small television face (words once used to describe David Caruso, but equally applicable here), Kutcher is incapable of doing the heavy lifting required to be a romantic lead . . . Peet, who has the looks and magnetism of a Kennedy offspring, makes Kutcher fade into the background, and you re left fantasizing what the movie might have been if Peter Sarsgaard had co-starred . . . Still, the movie is rich in the kind of details often left out because of a lack of budget or imagination.

Christopher Orr of The New York Sun said, What do you call a shameless imitation of a shameless imitation? A rip-off squared? An homage once removed? Whatever label you choose, it can be comfortably affixed to A Lot Like Love, an Ashton Kutcher-Amanda Peet vehicle that is a lot like When Harry Met Sally…, which was itself a lot like Annie Hall. Sadly, the resemblance does not extend to quality. Indeed, those with a scientific turn of mind may take the devolution from Annie to Harry to A Lot Like Love as yet another demonstration of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which says that in a closed system (an apt description of Hollywood if ever there was one) there is a tendency toward entropy – in this case, from acknowledged classic to memorable cable-television staple to dim, flabby dud . . . If one thing saves A Lot Like Love from disaster – and I m not sure it does – it s an easy chemistry between the leads, though one that owes little to Mr. Kutcher s performance . . . Fortunately, Ms. Peet carries off the role of Emily with enough spark that even Mr. Kutcher gradually lights up . . . Since running away with The Whole Nine Yards five years ago, Ms. Peet has had altogether too little opportunity to showcase her sexy comic appeal. A Lot Like Love might have provided that opportunity, had it only featured something a little like a script.

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film two out of four stars, calling it a lot like a lot of other romantic comedies that make two lovers of friends (When Harry Met Sally, Serendipity) and a lot not like the two witty and wise Richard Linklater movies – Before Sunrise and Before Sunset – that span the relationship between Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy for nearly a decade and leave you wanting more . . . About A Lot Like Love leaving you wanting a lot less, I am right.

Box office

The film opened on 2,502 screens in the United States on April 22, 2005. It earned $7,576,593 on its opening weekend, ranking fourth after The Interpreter, The Amityville Horror, and Sahara. It eventually grossed $21,845,719 in the US and $21,041,000 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $42,886,719.

Year	2005
ReleaseDate	2005-04-22
RuntimeMins	107
RuntimeStr	1h 47min
Plot	Unacquainted Emily and Oliver join the mile-high club together on the way from LAX to NYC–end of story. Except that they keep meeting constantly over the next seven years..
Awards	Awards, 1 win & 3 nominations
Directors	Nigel Cole
Writers	Colin Patrick Lynch
Stars	Ashton Kutcher, Amanda Peet, Taryn Manning
Produced by	Armyan Bernstein, Lisa Bruce, Zanne Devine, Suzann Ellis, Jo Farrugia, Jasmine Kosovic, Charlie Lyons, Brynn McQuade, Kevin J. Messick
Music by	Alex Wurman
Cinematography by	John de Borman
Film Editing by	Susan Littenberg
Casting By	Joseph Middleton
Production Design by	Tom Meyer
Art Direction by	Denise Hudson
Set Decoration by	Meg Everist
Costume Design by	Alix Friedberg
Makeup Department	Gary Archer, Erin Ayanian, Kim Ayers, Jerry DeCarlo, Lana Heying, Desne J. Holland, Tracey Levy, Elaine L. Offers, Nuria Sitja, Candy L. Walken
Production Management	John A. Amicarella, Robert Latham Brown, Nancy Rae Stone, Meredith Zamsky
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Stacey Beneville, Bac DeLorme, Peter Dress, Betsy Magruder, Craig Miller, Anish Savjani, Susan E. Walter
Art Department	Peter Allburn, Barbara Alperin, Doug Anderson, Julie Aquino, Andrew Baseman, Jeffrey Beck, David Brace, Michael Buha, Megan Malley Cannon, Gary J. Coelho, Curtis Crowe, Guillaume DeLouche, Val Drake, Tyler Lafferty, Alanna Nevada Levy, Eric Luling, Jonah Markowitz, James P. Meehan, Chris Patterson, Gabriela Ramírez, John Risso, Carisa Rosenthal, Joel Ruiz, Domenic Silvestri, Dick Tice, James Van Houten, Michael Vojvoda, Kathleen Walker, Michael Zeininger, Max Bozeman, Elizabeth Gary
Sound Department	Mark Agostino, Steve Bartkowicz, Frank Bradley, Kelly Cabral, Gary Coppola, Chris Navarro, Steve Nelson, Thomas O Neil Younkman, Aynee Osborn, William Sarokin, Brad Sherman, Unsun Song, Edward M. Steidele, Lauren Stephens, Jon Taylor, Eric Thompson, Jerry Trent, Glenn Young, Onofre Ortega
Special Effects by	Richard Stutsman
Visual Effects by	Akemi Abe, Artaya Boonsoong, Andy Chang, Saeed Faridzadeh, Niles Harrison, Justin Johnson, Wendy Klein, Artin Matousian, Glenn Morris, Ian Noe, Payam Shohadai
Stunts	Greg Brickman, Gary Combs, Gilbert B. Combs, Debbie Evans, Julie Ann Johnson, Lindsay MacFarland
Camera and Electrical Department	Michael Bauman, Lucas Bielan, Mike Bonnaud, Frank Boone, Joe Buscaglia, John Davies, Carlos DePalma, Kevin Fahey, Greg Finkel, Clayton Fowler, Charley Gilleran, Ben Glass, Scotty Goudreau, Chip Ingram, Alan Kaminsky, Brian Ko, Jim Kwiatkowski, Kirsten Laube, Michael Lyon, John Mang, John R. Manocchia, Gary Martone, Carson E. Mayne, Luis Moreno, Steve O Hallearn, Simone Perusse, David Richardson, Peter Rosenfeld, Ralph Scherer, Michael J. Schwartz, David D. Scott, Darrin Smith, Sarah St Clair Renard, N. Owen Taylor Jr., Don Telles, Michael Tolochko, Chris Tonkovich, Tyler Williams, Andy Young
Casting Department	Lauren Grey, Tina Kerr
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Barrett Hong, Celeste LaChance, Mary C. Lane, Kelly Mijailovic, Careen Fowles
Editorial Department	Judith Babcock, Bart Brevé, Lisa Cullen, Michael Eaves, Joe Pestana, Billy Rich, Royce Smith, Mike Stanwick
Location Management	Carlos A. Aragon, Dan Cooley, Stephenson Crossley, Ellen Gessert, Jane E. Graves, Aaron Hurvitz, Marshall Johnson, Christopher Lee, Peter Pastorelli, Rose Viggiano
Music Department	Christian Almiron, Tom Calderaro, George Doering, Matt Dunkley, Steve Durkee, M.B. Gordy, Bryan Lawson, Mitchell Leib, Jeffrey Schindler, Ellen Segal, Diana Stata, Laura Webb, Richard Ziegler, Laura Ziffren
Script and Continuity Department	Ashley Kravitz, Jayne-Ann Tenggren
Transportation Department	David Conelli, Paulie DiCocco III, Joe Feeney, Jeffrey Gowing, Alan Kaminsky, Chad Moore, Travis Stake, Carlos Williams
Additional Crew	Ethan Anderson, Lynn Appelle, Alicia Brown, Anthony Buncio, Matt Clifford, Jason Corica, Jeff Coward, Ivan Drehspul, Judi M. Durand, Terry M. Elam, Gino Falla, Daric Gates, Amy Hansen, Mazen Hassan, Bob Hiltermann, Jennifer Hunt, Tilu Khalayi, Jon Ko, Todd Kolker, Kiley Lambert, Rob Mitchell, Jennifer Mosley, Kelly Nash, Joe Nicchi, Jim Nickas, Molly O Haver, Kris Olson, Jeffrey Parker, Taylor Phillips, Bill Pugin, Alejandro Romero, Christopher T. Sadler, Brandon Schiffman, Kasia Skorynkiewicz, Kelly A. Snyder, Louise Spencer, Anne Marie Wilson, Naomi Yospe
Genres	Comedy, Drama, Romance
Companies	Touchstone Pictures, Mile High Productions, Beacon Pictures
Countries	USA
Languages	English, American Sign Language
ContentRating	PG-13
ImDbRating	6.6
ImDbRatingVotes	69729
MetacriticRating	48
Keywords	nipples visible through clothing,woman initiating sex,casual sex,sex in a car,sex in an airplane bathroom