Everything for a Reason

"Everything for a Reason" is classic Boy Meets Girl stuff. This is a sweetheart of an indie romantic-comedy, guaranteed to make you smile, even if it all seems vaguely familiar.. Manny is a young Greek-American writer, still living at home and pursuing Eve, a virgin who has just broken it off with Jake (who's been cheating with Donna). Manny's friend Teddy is trying desperately to win back Jenny, and enlists Mike's help to trick her into giving him another chance. Mike is dating Joanne, who happens to be Eve's sister. Every character in the film is defined mainly by their romantic situation, whether it be boyfriend, girlfriend, fiance, or ex. The overlapping storylines are handled deftly by writer/director Vlas Parlapanides, who uses the lead character Manny as his autobiographical stake in this romantic puzzle. There's an awful lot of single young people having dialogues about love and sex, many scenes refrencing genre classics like "Swingers," "Moonstruck," "When Harry Met Sally..."

As the story unfolds, Parlapanides shifts the tone from funny and playful to sweet. While it's not hard to see where the action is heading, the film makes a fine case for sticking out the rough world of dating.