![[box cover]](../../reviewimgs/j/justmyluck.jpg)
Just My Luck
The ubiquitous Lindsay Lohan stars in this fluffy 2006 tween-oriented romantic comedy as Ashley, the luckiest girl in Manhattan. Ashley is the sort of fortune-struck damsel who can always flag down a cab, expect the rainy skies to clear at her convenience, milk spending money from lottery scratch cards, catch the eye of billionaire bachelors, and land plum promotions through pluck and providence. In the venerable tradition of teen-movie switcheroos, however, Ashley's luck makes an abrupt boomerang when she steals an anonymous kiss from chronically hapless pop band manager Jake (Chris Pine) at a masquerade ball. Suddenly, Ashley's charmed existence is cursed: She gets arrested, loses her job, her classy apartment floods, and she has to endure an onslaught of slapsticky misfortunes. Meanwhile, Jake instantly shakes off his plague of miseries, saving the life of a powerful music mogul who signs Jake's band to lucrative record deal and moves Jake into a swanky penthouse. And yet, Ashley isn't entirely unlucky — screenwriters I. Marlene King and Amy Harris plant enough convenient clues amongst Ashley's sudden squalor that she is able to discover, without too much effort, what went wrong, how to set it straight, and how to fall in love with the nifty hunk who stole her luck. Director Donald Petrie doesn't need to tinker with the formula that informed previous inoffensive hit comedies — like no less than three versions of Disney's Freaky Friday, the latest of which co-starred Lohan. Instead, Petrie focuses on keeping the movie light and boppy, letting a majority of its charm emanate from Lohan, who, despite her partying tabloid pedigree, hits all the right notes in this kind of material. Ashley's less-fortunate (but nonetheless comely) girlfriends, Samaire Armstrong ("The O.C.") and Bree Turner, also have appealing comic personas, while Pine is good-natured but all too bland, failing to match Lohan's presence. As Just My Luck breezes along through typically uninspired physical gags, it does feature a few decent chuckles here and there and would be perfectly inoffensive teen girl bubblegum if it weren't for an unnecessary dirty word and plot point involving a male prostitute, making it perhaps inapproriate for the age group most likely to enjoy it. Also with Faizon Love, Missi Pyle, Makenzie Vega, the boy rockers McFly, Carlos Ponce, and Tovah Feldshuh as the fortune teller who keeps the plot rolling. Fox presents Just My Luck on DVD in a good anamorphic transfer (1.85:1) with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. This disc includes three deleted scenes, the very brief featurette "Look of Luck," and a behind-the-scenes look at the featured band McFly. Keep-case.
—Gregory P. Dorr
