Just My Luck Fortunately Funny

     I’ve never really taken to Lindsey Lohan. Since her role(s) in The Parent Trap and on through her parts in Freaky Friday and Herbie: Fully Loaded I’ve always mildly despised her, never grasping the extent of her popularity. Therefore, it is particularly fitting that I’ve finally grown accustomed to her charms in a movie in which she gets thrown in jail, gets punched by a prisoner (twice) and falls head-first in a mountain of mud.

      Just My Luck is supposed to be Lohan’s coming-of-age role where she no longer portrays a kid. While her character inexplicably holds the position of an executive for a large company at a young age, Lohan still doesn’t show any signs of serious leading actress status. Just My Luck is basically just another teen comedy – except this one is actually funny. Perhaps it is because this movie (along with Mean Girls) is one of Lohan’s only features outside of the Walt Disney label that it is enjoyable but I don’t discount my amusement in seeing the trendy Lohan get what’s coming to her.

     Lohan plays Ashley Albright, a girl with more good luck than a horseshoe. Ashley can’t walk down the streets of Manhattan without a five-dollar-bill sticking to the bottom of one of her shoes. Meanwhile, Jake Hardin, played by Chris Pine, can’t walk down the streets of Manhattan without his pants falling down and getting falsely arrested for indecency. Jake’s bad luck prevents him or the band he represents from moving up in the world. However, Jake is well-prepared for the constant rain cloud that follows him around and makes the best of things.

     Disguised as a hired dancer, Jake sneaks into a party that Ashley’s company is throwing for the owner of a record label and the two end up dancing with each other. Despite a psychic’s warning of an ill fate, Ashley kisses a masked Jake. Suddenly, Ashley’s luck goes to the dogs as she gets arrested and loses her job. On the other hand, Jake is having extremely good luck. A desperate Ashley visits the psychic and they deduce that her luck was switched with that of the man with which she shared the kiss. Ashley must now find the man, whom she doesn’t know is Jake, and steal her luck back from him.

     Despite the very hackneyed premise, Just My Luck is very entertaining. The entire movie is simply ridiculous but somehow it ends up being a whole lot of fun. This may be partly as a result of Pine, who is a charming actor. His very down-to-earth persona is a refreshing change from such model-esque actors as Chad Michael Murray. In addition, regardless of whether he has good luck or bad luck, Pine’s character Jake is kind to everyone around him. He is a likeable guy so we want to see him succeed and get the girl – even if the girl is Lohan.

     Then there is the comedy, which works particularly well. The first few scenes featuring Jake having just another one of his awful days set the mood up nicely. In the same way that we anticipate the death sequences in the Final Destination movies, we are eager to see what forms of bad luck the writers come up with next in Just My Luck. We know they are coming and the cleverest ones have us in stitches.

      Just My Luck feels like a movie that could have done well in the 90s but may have trouble finding an audience today. It joins the ranks of last year’s Just Like Heaven (wow, I just realized another connection between the two) in that they are both very sweet movies with genuine laughs but their supernatural foundations may hinder their success. Just My Luck is one of the most delightful comedies I’ve seen this year and you will surely consider yourself lucky if you see it.

     Unless you break a mirror… in which case you’ll be unlucky… for seven years…