Just My Luck (2006 film)



Just My Luck is a 2006 American romantic comedy film directed by Donald Petrie and written by I. Marlene King and Amy B. Harris. The film stars Lindsay Lohan and Chris Pine as the main characters. Lohan stars as Ashley, the luckiest girl in Manhattan, New York. She loses her luck after kissing Jake, portrayed by Pine, at a masquerade bash.

The film features supporting roles by Samaire Armstrong, Faizon Love, Missi Pyle, and McFly, the English band whom Jake discovers in the film and tries to help by finding them a producer.

Plot
The film follows the life of lucky and popular Ashley Albright (Lindsay Lohan) who has an extremely fortunate life and is always experiencing remarkable strokes of luck in contrast to the life of unlucky and unpopular Jake Hardin (Chris Pine), manager of McFly, who is extremely unsuccessful and followed by bad luck wherever he goes.

Persistent in her effort to hold onto a client, Ashley manages to sell Damon Phillips (Faizon Love) on the idea of a masquerade party. Meanwhile, Jake tries to get a music businessman to sign up a band he leads, but due to his usual bad luck it is a disaster and Jake is fired. When Ashley's boss, Peggy, learns of the plan, she is, to Ashley's surprise, impressed with the idea, leaving her with the task of organizing the party independently. Jake, hearing of the party and of the number of possible sponsors who could be there, hatches a plan to attend, in order to meet a very famous man (Phillips) who could rehire him and publicise his band. He poses as a dancer for the masquerade party and gains entry.

During the party, Ashley is confronted by a fortune teller who warns her she will soon be struck by bad luck. As Jake wanders around the party, he is taken with Ashley's beauty and asks her to join him in a dance, during which they kiss. Neither can see the other's face, as they are both wearing masks. During the kiss, their luck is switched: Jake gets Ashley's good luck and Ashley gets Jake's bad luck. Jake spots Phillips and saves him from a taxi cab that nearly hit him. As a way of thanking him, Phillips, who is in charge of a major record company, signs up McFly and hires Jake. Jake is surprised that something good actually happened to him. Meanwhile, Ashley's new bad luck kicks in and not only does she break her shoe, tear her dress, and nearly choke on an olive, but she goes to jail (her boss turns out to be a prostitute and the guy was an escort to her). Even in jail, Ashley experiences more bad luck (including one of the cell mates punching her in the face). After she gets out, she has even more bad luck, such as a flood in her house, a zit on her face, and causing the power to go out. Fed up and wanting to know why these bad things are happening to her, Ashley goes to the fortune teller, who tells her someone else has her lost good luck and he needed it more.

Desperate to regain her luck, Ashley asks more of the fortune teller, who explains that, in order for her life to return to what it was before, she must again kiss the person she kissed at the party. Ashley begins hunting down all the dancers from the company who had supplied the dancers at the party. While on her search, Ashley tries to get some food from a cafe but is rejected because she doesn't have enough money. She creates mass chaos (due to bad luck) and makes a mad dash out of the cafe with the help of Jake, who offers Ashley his previous job as a janitor person at the bowling alley and takes pity on her because he was once in her situation. Ashley, desperate for a job, accepts immediately.

Later, Jake takes Ashley to the place where McFly is practicing and Jake gets the deal from Phillips that signs his band up for a new music studio. Jake shares his good fortune with Ashley, even giving her a place to stay. She discovers that Jake is the one who has stolen her luck. Seizing her chance, she kisses him, whereupon he gets his bad luck back; Ashley's good luck has returned. That night, she thinks hard about her life and about how Jake had put his (her) good fortune to use. She decides that her life was more enjoyable without luck and goes to Jake's first concert for McFly, during which things aren't running smoothly.

Ashley kisses Jake, given good luck again, and the concert is saved. Ashley decides to end contact with Jake, as she doesn't want their luck to be switched again; she believes Jake put the good luck to better use than she ever did. She goes to the railway station, where Jake finds her and tries to convince her that she was all he wanted since the party and says that even with all his good fortune, it could never buy him happiness. They then kiss each other relentlessly, causing their luck to swap so quickly that they no longer know who has the good luck and who has the bad. When they see Jake's little cousin Katy and both of them kiss her, one on each cheek, at the same time, she gets all the luck and wins a scratch card lottery of twenty-five dollars. Later, when they find a quarter, they decide that they still have some luck left. But only seconds later, they are drenched by a broken water line.

Cast

 * Lindsay Lohan as Ashley Albright
 * Chris Pine as Jake Hardin
 * Samaire Armstrong as Maggie
 * Bree Turner as Dana
 * Faizon Love as Damon Phillips
 * Missi Pyle as Peggy Braden
 * Makenzie Vega as Katy Applee
 * Carlos Ponce as Antonio
 * Tovah Feldshuh as Madame Z
 * Jaqueline Fleming as Tiffany
 * McFly as Themselves
 * Dane Rhodes as Mac
 * Mikki Val as Tough Jailbird
 * Chris Carmack as David Pennington (uncredited)

Cultural references

 * 2 Tone Records - An English record label
 * Balducci's - A specialty gourmet food retailer
 * Brad Pitt - An American actor
 * Dom Perignon - A luxury wine brand
 * Jude Law - An English actor
 * Sarah Jessica Parker - An American actress

Production notes
Principal photography took place in New Orleans, Louisiana before Hurricane Katrina hit the area. In March 2005, filming continued in New York City.

Reception
The film received mostly negative reviews from critics, with Rotten Tomatoes giving it a 13% rating with a very long consensus: "Just My Luck is a screwball rom-com that fails to take advantage of Lindsay Lohan's considerable charm. The film (along with Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion) marks the end of Lohan's teen queen phase as she begins playing characters that are older, but not necessarily wiser. Lohan's character is supposedly cursed with bad luck, though the movie confuses misfortune with plain stupidity, leading Lohan into a long series of silly and senseless physical gags."

Lohan earned a Razzie Award nomination as Worst Actress for her performance in the film.

Box office
Just My Luck opened at #4 at the North American box office with $5,692,285 in its opening weekend, May 12, 2006. In the US, it grossed $17,326,650. The film grossed $38 million worldwide.

Soundtrack
The album is made up entirely of songs from McFly's first two albums, Room on the 3rd Floor and Wonderland, with the exception of the brand new track "Just My Luck", which was recorded especially for the film. Though released as the film's soundtrack, a selection of the songs featured on the album were not in the film. Reworked versions of "5 Colours in Her Hair", "I've Got You" and "Unsaid Things", as well as the censored Single version of "I Wanna Hold You" appear on the album instead of the original versions. The European version of the album slightly muddles up the track listing, and adds the hidden track "Get Over You" in the pre-gap.