Baggage Claim

Adapted from his own novel, director David E. Talbert's Baggage Claim centers on Montana Moore (Paula Patton), a flight attendant being pressured by her mother (Jenifer Lewis) to find a man before the wedding of her youngest sister. Montana decides to become engaged within a month, unwisely taking the advice of two colleagues to use the airline's booking schedule in order to “accidentally” bump into all of her past boyfriends with the aim of rekindling a romance with whomever turns out to be the best prospect. This numbskull scenario finds Montana playing off a two-timing cad, a hip-hop star, and a smiling jerk (Taye Diggs) who is running for Congress as a Libertarian Republican--the latter dragging Montana along as a prop to a dinner meeting with a potential contributor. All of these tedious encounters are made more unbearable by the fact that Montana's obvious choice—a childhood friend who is actually named Mr. Wright!—lives just down the hall from her. Naturally, he has a girlfriend, but the script is able to take care of that impediment, leading to a foregone conclusion. Baggage Claim features an attractive ensemble cast but they're stuck in an inane film. Not recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by writer-director David E. Talbert, the production featurettes “Fly Girls,” “Wing Men,” and “The Story” (15 min. total), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are deleted scenes (9 min.), cast interviews (5 min.), a behind-the-scenes featurette with Talbert (3 min.), and bonus DVD and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a disappointing film.] (F. Swietek)