Addicted to Love (film)

Addicted to Love is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by Griffin Dunne and starring Meg Ryan, Matthew Broderick, Tchéky Karyo, and Kelly Preston. Its title is based on Robert Palmer's song "Addicted to Love", a cover of which by Neneh Cherry is featured in the film.

Plot
Two pairs of lovers play out a comedy of errors, in which Maggie (Meg Ryan) and Sam (Matthew Broderick), try several unethical and nasty tricks to break apart the envied union of their respective former partners, Anton (Tchéky Karyo) and Linda (Kelly Preston) including identity theft, assault, and destroying Anton's restaurant.

Obsessive astronomer Sam is devastated when the love of his life, Linda, cheats on him and leaves him for a suave Frenchman named Anton. He therefore goes to New York to stalk her and sets up house (and a camera obscura) in the abandoned building opposite Linda's, intent on winning her back and waiting until she decides to leave her current lover. What Sam does not count on is being joined several weeks later by Maggie, a photographer and motorcyclist, who is determined to get revenge on Anton, her ex-fiance. Mutually hostile at first, the two of them eventually join forces in an attempt to separate the couple and ruin Anton's life. However, complications ensue when Sam and Maggie start falling for each other.

Cast

 * Meg Ryan as Maggie
 * Matthew Broderick as Sam
 * Kelly Preston as Linda
 * Tchéky Karyo as Anton
 * Maureen Stapleton as Nana
 * Remak Ramsay as Professor Wells
 * Lee Wilkof as Carl
 * Dominick Dunne as Matheson
 * Larry Pine as Street Comic
 * Daniel Dae Kim as Undergrad Assistant
 * Bill Timoney as Restaurant Patron

Critical reviews
The film received mixed reviews. Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert panned it as immature, implausible and imbecilic, but still gave it two stars out of a possible four.

He did not go as far as the Los Angeles Times ' Kevin Thomas, who called it creepy and said:

It is exceedingly difficult to find what's funny in the calculated, obsessive, relentless destruction of Anton, especially when he proves to be the most likable and mature of all four of these people. Maybe Addicted to Love might work as a pitch-dark comedy, but in the way Robert Gordon has written it and Griffin Dunne directed it, it gives us the impression that we're supposed to take drastic, irrational revenge as a larky laff riot.

Time Out New York film critic Andrew Johnston (critic) wrote: "Some say that movies named after hit songs always suck. In its own unspectacular way, Addicted to Love proves them wrong. Griffin Dunne's directorial debut is no artistic triumph, certainly, but it is a reasonably entertaining big-screen sitcom."

Addicted to Love currently holds a 56% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 32 reviews.

Reception
The film only managed to take $34,673,095 gross at the box office, several million less than either Ryan or Broderick's averages.

Release
The film, marking actor Griffin Dunne's directorial debut, was released on May 23, one week before the highly competitive Memorial Day weekend in the United States.

Box office
The film opened at #2 at the North American box office making $11.4 million USD in its opening weekend, behind The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

Locations
While the majority of the filming took place where it was set, in the Greenwich Village area of New York City, some shooting was done in Centreville, Delaware and Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.