Down with Love

Down with Love is a 2003 film about an early 1960s feminist author clashing professionally and romantically with a dashing lothario. It is presented as a pastiche of early 1960s 'sex comedies' such as those starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson.

Directed by Peyton Reed. Written by Eve Ahlert and Dennis Drake.

The ultimate catch has met his match. (taglines)

Barbara Novak

• I'm not gonna storm out of here, Catch. And I'm not gonna admit that you got Barbara Novak to fall in love, because I'm not Barbara Novak. There is no Barbara Novak. And I didn't fall in love with Zip Martin. I fell in love with Catcher Block. And that was a year ago, when for three and a half weeks I worked as your secretary. I don't expect you to remember me, I wasn't a blond then. But you did ask me out. And it broke my heart to say no, but I loved you too much. I couldn't bear to become just another notch in your bedpost. With your dating habits I knew that even if I was lucky enough to get a regular spot on your rotating schedule, I would never have your undivided attention long enough for you to fall in love with me. I knew I had to do something to set myself apart. I knew I had to quit my job as your secretary, and write an international best-seller controversial enough to get the attention of a New York publisher as well as KNOW magazine, but insignificant enough that as long as I went unseen, KNOW magazine's star journalist would refuse to do a cover story about it. I knew that every time we were supposed to meet, you would get distracted by one of your many girlfriends and stand me up, and this would give me a reason to fight with you over the phone and declare that I wouldn't meet with you for a hundred years. And then all I would have to do was be patient and wait the two or three weeks it would take for everyone in the world to buy a copy of my best-seller, and then I would begin to get the publicity I would need for you to, one, see what I look like, and, two, see me denounce you in public as the worst kind of man. I knew that this would make you want get even by writing one of your exposés. And in order to do that, you would have to go undercover, assume a false identity and pretend to be the kind of man who would make the kind of girl I was pretending to be fall in love. And I knew that since I was pretending to be a girl who would have sex on the first date you would have pretend to be a man who wouldn't have sex for several dates. And in doing so, we would go out on lots of dates to all the best places and all the hit shows until finally, one night, you would take me back to your place that you were pretending was someone else's in order to get the evidence you needed to write your exposé. By seducing me until I said, "I love you." But saying "I love you" was also my plan. I just wanted to tell you the truth so that when you heard me say, "I love you" you would know that I knew who you were, and you would know who I was. Then you, the great Catcher Block, would know that you'd been beaten at your own game—by me, Nancy Brown, your former secretary. And I would have, once and for all, set myself apart from all the other girls you've known, all those other girls that you never really cared about, by making myself someone like the one person you really love and admire above all others: you. Then, when you realized that you had finally met your match, I would have at last gained the respect that would make you wanna marry me first and seduce me later. [Catch is staring at her in undisguised confusion and astonishment.] I just wanted you to hear all this from me before you heard it from your private eye.

Catcher Block

• I'm taking [Barbara] to my place which she still thinks is your place by saying the guy she thinks I am who acts like you has a meeting there with you and the guy who she still doesn't know I really am.
• I'm sorry I have to say this, Barbara but....I love you. So I can make love to you heartfelt, passionate, worshiping, adoring love and you can still have meaningless sex with me, right?

Dialogue

[After the credits; Vickie and Peter call each other on the telephone at the exact same moment. They proceed to speak entirely in unison throughout the scene]

Vickie Hiller and Peter MacManus: I'm sorry, you'll have to hold. Peter / Vickie?! Do you want to marry me or not?! I'm not giving up my career! [Equal astonishment] I wouldn't ask you to! Then it's a deal? Deal!

Taglines

• The ultimate catch has met his match

Cast

• Renee Zellweger — Barbara Novak
• Ewan McGregor — Catcher Block
• Sarah Paulson — Vickie Hiller
• David Hyde Pierce—Peter MacManus

External links

• Down With Love quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• Down With Love at Rotten Tomatoes