20 Dates

Myles Berkowitz's shoestring mockumentary about dating in Los Angeles is a tongue-in-cheek charmer whose uproarious, Candid Camera-style moments elevate it above its meager origins. As a frustrated, recently divorced filmmaker, Berkowitz plays an unbridled parody of himself. To jump-start his career and his love life, the would-be auteur decides to make a documentary chronicling his next 20 dates -- and for the concept, he receives $60,000 from a financier of dubious motives.

Most of the date-cam scenarios unfold in all-too-perfunctory fashion. The film is most barbed and effective when Berkowitz is conversing with his crass-mouthed producer, who wants a T&A picture, or when he's out prowling the supermarket or an AA meeting, desperately trying to fill his date quota. Along the way, the romantic klutz falls for one of his candidates and develops a conflict between his emotions and his desire to complete the project. It's also at this juncture that the film surrenders its witty edge and falls into to a preachy eddy of maudlin melodrama. If only Myles had stayed single longer, he might have completed what promised to be a piquant treat.

-- Tom Meek