April 7, 2000
Romance/Drama
PG
United States
Director: Bonnie Hunt
“Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Some love stories make you laugh. Some love stories make you cry. Some love stories make you want that passion, or appreciate the one you have. This one is all of the above.
Bob Rueland (David Duchovny) is a successful architect and his wife, Elizabeth (Joely Richardson), is a doctor who works at a zoo, where she specifically watches after Sydney, the gorilla. She’s speaking at a dinner party, hoping to get enough donations to build Sydney and his family a new, bigger habitat. Bob promises he’ll get it done with or without the extra funding, so long as she promises him a trip to Italy. She agrees, but unfortunately, it never happens.
On the way home after the dinner party, Bob and Elizabeth are in a car accident. One where Elizabeth doesn’t recover from. This sends Bob into a downward spiral. He never goes out except for work, he lets his house turn into a large garbage can with take out containers everywhere, and he has a hard time with his dog, Mel, who really only eats when Elizabeth is home.
Enter Grace Briggs (Minnie Driver). She has a heart condition that she inherited from her mother, and the only way she’ll survive is with a new heart. Unbeknownst to anyone, the heart she receives is Elizabeth’s. After her surgery, she wrote a thank you letter to sent anonymously to the donor’s family, and finally did so well after she was healed.
After a year, Bob realizes he needs to snap out of his funk, and finally agrees to go out with his friend, Charlie (David Alan Grier) to an Irish/Italian restaurant called O’Reilly’s where, coincidentally, Grace works as a waitress. This is where they meet for the first time. They feel an instant connection and it’s not long after when Bob asks her out.
His mood is instantly lifted. He’s happy and all-around having fun again. He hangs out with Grace and her family a lot, who consists of her grandfather Marty (Carroll O’Connor), her uncle Angelo (Robert Loggia), her best friend Megan (Bonnie Hunt) and her husband Joe (Jim Belushi), Megan’s father Wally (William Bronder), and their friends Emmett (Eddie Jones) and Sophie (Marianne Muellerleile). Even Sydney reacts the same way with Grace as he had with Elizabeth, and Mel follows Grace around. Everything is going great, except that Grace is too nervous to tell Bob that she’s had a heart transplant. She had told Megan that every time a guy finds out about it, they think she’s broken, and Bob is so wonderful to her, she’s afraid of what his reaction will be.
She finally decides to tell him, but before she can, she finds the letter she had sent in his house. It’s then that she realizes the heart she has belonged to Bob’s late wife. In a panic, she leaves, but knows she can’t keep it a secret forever.
Grace has never been on an airplane before and has always wanted to go to Italy to paint. Marty bought her a plane ticket, and she decides that now is a good time to leave as to not hurt Bob more than she has to. She also was never able to ride a bicycle before, and when her kickstand breaks, Bob buys her a new one. He shows up to surprise her with it and she tells him she’s leaving. When he asks why, she shows him the letter she had taken from his hows and explains that she was the one who wrote it. Understandably, this is a lot for Bob to take in, and he leaves to gather his thoughts.
Grace leaves for Italy and is gone for two days before Bob shows back up at the restaurant looking for her. Marty takes Bob outside and tells him that he knew the heart Grace got would have had to belonged to someone special, and that maybe that heart was meant to always be with Bob.
Bob had said he misses his wife, he will always miss her, but he aches for Grace. So, he takes off for Italy after her, and when he finds her, he tells her he loves her. She, in turn, lays his head on her chest so he can hear her heartbeat.
Bob and his team finish the habitat for Sydney and they dedicate it to Elizabeth. Grace and her family and friends are there in support. The movie ends with a wedding, but not the one you might think. Sophie and Wally get married, and the credits roll while showing Bob and Grace dancing.
If you’re anything like me, you’re gonna cry throughout this movie. At the beginning when Elizabeth dies, especially with watching Mel wait for her, then when Grace tells Bob about the transplant. But don’t let that deter you; this film is also filled with lots of laughs, particularly from Marty, Angelo, Wally, and Emmett.
I don’t remember any advertising for this movie when it came out, and that’s a shame, because it’s really good and more people should know about it. It’s funny and sad and romantic and goofy all at once. If you’re into rom-com’s, I definitely recommend it.
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