Chasing the Blues

The film’s pleasures are small ones, but they’re perfectly pitched and anyone who’s ever collected anything will empathize with the depth of Alan and Paul’s passion, if not their actions.

We’re left with a perhaps too tidy ending that picks up the spirits but doesn’t delve into the questions about human nature that the movie raises. Had it dug a bit deeper, it might have been something more than the overall pleasant entertainment vehicle that it is.

It all combines for an enjoyable if slight adventure.

With all the emphasis we put on “plot” in the movies, novelty in the setting, situations and obsessions of the characters, it’s a shame when a comedy comes along that can’t make the most of a good one.

The script from director Scott Smith and co-writer Kevin Guilfoile thinks the rivalry between the two collectors is enough to sustain the narrative, but it doesn’t devote much of its energies to developing the relationship between Alan and Paul.