Laws of Attraction

Two New York divorce attorneys (Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore) find themselves falling in love despite a professional cynicism about the institution of marriage—plus the fact that they’re often fighting on opposite sides of the same case. Writers Aline Brosh McKenna and Robert Harling seem to have a fixation on the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn classic Adam’s Rib, but they’d be wise to hope that their audience has never seen it: The script exhausts its laughs and surprises after the first half-hour, spiraling down into turgid soap opera and taking too long to get to its foregone conclusion. Director Peter Howitt gamely tries to keep things moving, but the script is too lopsided to keep its momentum going. Brosnan and Moore, though, have nice chemistry, and Moore has unexpected comic talent.