The Accidental Husband

There is a weird, misogynist streak running through romantic comedies that portrays all professional women as sexually repressed incompetents. What’s even weirder is that women eat this stuff up, although Griffin Dunne’s The Accidental Husband is too god-awful to appease any demographic (consider that License to Wed was released to theaters, while this one went straight to DVD). Uma Thurman overdoes the dither as Emily Lloyd, a successful Boston radio love doctor who preaches responsible relationships over passionate love. Her pragmatic advice leads one listener to dump her rough-around-the-edges fireman boyfriend, who retaliates by seducing her away from her straight-arrow fiancé under false pretenses. Only in a rom-com could marrying a handsome, wealthy book publisher be considered settling, while a dirtbag sociopath prone to “manly” pronouncements like “I’m not really the texting type” is the “charming” hero.