Review: Baggage Claim

BY HANNAH RAMESAR

The movie Baggage Claim covers the hectic romantic timeline of flight attendant Montana Moore (Paula Patton) trying to find her Mr. Right. Unfortunately, the writer and director, David E. Talbert, completely misses the mark with this romantic comedy.

Baggage Claim was 96 minutes of pure torment. Watching it was a fate I would not wish upon my worst enemy; the film could most definitely be listed as one of the many methods of torture. Talbert’s movie is an embarrassing comedy that insults the female audience for which it is intended. Patton plays a woman desperate to be with any man willing to pop the question. She flies to almost every end of the country, searching out her “old flames” in the hope that one of them will be her Mr. Right and will accompany her to her younger sister’s wedding. The film is archaic in its depiction of feminine self-worth.

With her sassy best friend, Gail (Jill Scott), always armed with innuendos and her no-filter gay pal, Sam (Adam Brody), Moore is fully supported on her endeavor to trot the globe in search of her Prince Charming.

Living down the hall from her is her childhood friend, William Wright (Derek Luke), who might just be the man she is searching for. Luke is one of the astonishing arrays of actors that Talbert uses to serve up a smorgasbord of possible suitors. The greatest tension achieved throughout the entire film is the decision of whether Montana should live a life of luxury and excitement alongside a hotel magnate Quinton (Djimon Hounsou), or a life of safety and security with Wright, who runs his family’s construction business.

She tries reconnecting with previous boyfriends, triggering the bad-date montage. In the end, everything comes full circle and Montana ends up where she is meant to be; in the arms of Mr. Wright. Who, as you guessed, was under her nose the entire time. No cliché was left unturned and Baggage Claim is the type of movie I would only watch if I were bored and browsing my Starz menu.

The plot and script would be better aired in a cheesy ballad, or even a hairspray commercial. The film is aggressively shallow and superficial in its attitude toward contemporary romance, and it hardly presents a realistic portrayal of the plight of a single women. Baggage Claim is corny and overly predictable from beginning to end.