As someone who grew up in the 50s and a big fan of movies like “Sex and the Single Girl”, I was expecting something similar in “Down With Love”. Unfortunately, what I found was self righteous, revisionist “satire” which requires being fully on board with post modern prejudices and mythology to actually enjoy it. The movie is rife with scenes like huge billowing clouds of cigarette smoke emerging from elevators and women editors at publishing companies who routinely act as the coffee serving girls for their bosses.

Chuck Jones once said that you can’t effectively satirize something unless you love it. Clearly the folks who did this movie find the period as politically primative as they arrogantly think their own enlightened. That makes for a movie which can be fully enjoyed only by like minded individuals or those utterly ignorant of the realities of the past.

Scott Holleron’s review was scathing: “As is often the case, the movie’s trailer is a complete fraud. The audience is invited into a colorful world with the promise of a light, witty romance and, instead, is pulverized with a sense of humor ripped from an episode of the Simpsons, South Park or Beavis and Butthead. Projecting the vulgar sensibility of Austin Powers on the innocent early 1960s, Down with Love is down on love.”

I couldn’t agree more.