Way back when I first started working on the book that became Enchanted, Inc., I did a kind of “retreat” on Labor Day weekend to prepare for writing it, which included watching romantic comedies so I could capture that tone while adding magic to it. That started a tradition I’ve called Chick Lit and Chick Flick weekend. I didn’t read chick lit for Labor Day weekend this year, but I did make a point of watching a romantic comedy. I thought about watching something new, but since rom-coms, especially new ones, can be so hit or miss, I went with a fairly obscure favorite, a British rom-com called The Very Thought of You (though it was originally released under a different title).

It’s hard to describe this movie in a way that shows what makes it fun without giving away the twists, but then the twists are hardly surprising, given that it is a romantic comedy and it’s fairly obvious which couple will get together.

The gist of it is that an American woman gets fed up with her life and decides to leave it all behind. She buys a ticket for the first flight she can afford, which turns out to be London. Then she meets a guy at the airport, and that sets off a chain reaction of events. We see things mostly from the guy’s perspective as he meets her, makes some grand gestures to be close to her, then loses her, and then he tells his two best friends about her. Next we see one of the friends run into her, realize it’s the woman his friend told him about, and he then flirts with her and loses her. And then we find out what was really going on around all this to explain the other events.

It’s not really a Rashomon thing where the story changes depending on who’s telling it. It’s more that the camera sticks with the guys, so we only see what they see and know what they know at the time, and so we get different information depending on which guy the camera’s with.

Joseph Fiennes is our romantic leading man, and this movie seems to have been made just before Shakespeare in Love. It’s interesting to consider how his career might have gone if this had been what established him instead, but I get the feeling he wouldn’t have stuck with romcoms even if he hadn’t become better known for costume dramas since his choices have been rather eclectic. He does make a great romantic leading man because he says a lot with his eyes. The movie also includes Tom Hollander and Rufus Sewell. Our leading lady is Monica Potter, who had a brief run at being the next big romcom heroine around the turn of the century.

I enjoy this one because mixing up the structure makes the standard girl-meets-boy fresher, and then there’s the underlying internal conflict with the guy having to choose between loyalty to his friends and love and then consider whether his friends really are his friends, so there’s some emotional depth to it. It’s laugh-out-loud funny in a couple of places, I actually want the main couple to get together, and we get some lovely London scenery.

I don’t think this one is currently streaming anywhere. I bought the DVD after seeing it on cable (or possibly a local station) one Saturday or Sunday afternoon years ago. I don’t know what kind of release it got in the US, given that it came out during a time when I was seeing a lot of movies and paying attention to what was coming out but I’d never heard of it. If you do find it, it’s good for the classic romcom feelings but with a few twists, as well as getting to watch some actors who went on to be much bigger stars at early points in their careers. There’s even an extra you barely spot who’s gone on to become much better known.