''I'm Reed Fish'' is an American

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typic ...

film based on a story by Reed Fish, and released theatrically on June 1, 2007. The film was directed by Zackary Adler and stars

Alexis Bledel Kimberly Alexis Bledel ( ; born September 16, 1981) is an American actress and model. She is known for her role as Rory Gilmore on the television series ''Gilmore Girls'' (2000–2007), and Emily Malek in '' The Handmaid's Tale'' (2017–2021) ...

, Jay Baruchel, and

Schuyler Fisk Schuyler Elizabeth Fisk (pronounced ) is an American actress and singer-songwriter. Early life Fisk was born in Los Angeles, California, to actress Sissy Spacek and production designer Jack Fisk. She has a younger sister named Madison. Fisk b ...

. Jay Baruchel won the Best Actor award at the

U.S. Comedy Arts Festival The Comedy Festival, formerly known as the US Comedy Arts Festival, was a comedy festival that ran from 1995 to 2008. The festival included stand-up comedy performances, appearances by the casts of television shows, and has a film component call ...

in 2007 for his role of Reed Fish. The film was released to DVD on September 4, 2007.

Plot

Reed Fish has followed in the footsteps of his late father, doing an early-morning radio show with the town's mayor, Maureen, through which the eccentric locals of Mud Meadows voice their complaints and have them addressed. Reed produces the show with his old high school buddy, Frank, and he's engaged to be married to another high school classmate, Kate Peterson, whose dad owns several businesses in town. Reed's plans are upended when his high school sweetheart, Jill, comes back to town. She's supposed to be away at law school, but confides to Reed that she quit school two years earlier, and has been working as a waitress while she fruitlessly pursues a career in music. Reed encourages her to play on Open Mike Night at the local bar. He inspires her to find her voice, which leads to some complications in his relationship with Kate, forcing Reed to reexamine every aspect of his safe, secure life.

Cast

* Jay Baruchel as Reed Fish *

as Kate *

as Jill * Victor Rasuk as Frank Cortez *

DJ Qualls Donald Joseph Qualls (born June 10, 1978) is an American actor. He is best known for his work in films including ''Road Trip'' (2000), ''The New Guy'' (2002) and '' The Core'' (2003), and for several appearances on television series such as ''B ...

as Andrew *

A. J. Cook Andrea Joy Cook (born July 22, 1978) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her role as Supervisory Special Agent Jennifer "JJ" Jareau on the CBS crime drama ''Criminal Minds'' (2005–2020, 2022). Cook has also appeared in ''The Virgin ...

as Theresa * Katey Sagal as Maureen *

Chris Parnell Thomas Christopher Parnell (; born February 5, 1967) is an American actor and comedian. He was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1998 to 2006 and played the role of Dr. Leo Spaceman on ''30 Rock''. In animation, he voices Cyril Figgis ...

as Ralph *

Shiri Appleby Shiri Freda Appleby (born December 7, 1978) is an American actress and television director. She is best known for her leading roles as Liz Parker in the WB/UPN science fiction drama series '' Roswell'' (1999–2002) and Rachel Goldberg in the Li ...

as Jill Cavanaugh * Valerie Azlynn as Kate Peterson *

Blake Clark Blake Clark (born February 2, 1946) is an American actor and stand-up comedian. He is best known as Chet Hunter on ''Boy Meets World'' and Harry "The Hardware Store Guy" on ''Home Improvement''. Clark has voiced Slinky Dog in the ''Toy Story'' f ...

as Irv * Reed Fish as John Penner

Reception

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' described the film as a "Charming, rural version of a pre-wedding panic...flawlessly in tune to small-town rhythms. Pitch-perfect dialogue, quietly dynamic helming and small-scale action on a widescreen canvas make for a very appealing film." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called the film "a rural coming-of-age tale that's so laid-back that its cast is almost horizontal." In a 2010 interview, performer

Reggie Watts Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Watts (born March 23, 1972) is an American comedian, actor, beatboxer, and musician. His improvised musical sets are created using only his voice, a keyboard, and a looping machine. Watts refers to himself as a "disinf ...

said that he "loved it", describing it as "kind of a like a ''Ferris Bueller's'' in the woods." On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film has an approval rating of 52% based on 21 reviews, with an average rating of 5.12/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Painless if largely unmemorable, ''I'm Reed Fish'' fails to distinguish itself from countless other small-town comedies populated by amiably quirky characters." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a score of 36% based on reviews from 8 critics.

References

External links

*
DVD Talk on ''I'm Reed Fish''

Apollo Movie Guide on ''I'm Reed Fish''
{{DEFAULTSORT:I'm Reed Fish 2006 films 2006 romantic comedy films American coming-of-age films 2000s English-language films Films directed by Zackary Adler 2000s American films