There is a song in Just Friends (2005), written by the insane pop star Samantha James (Anna Faris), that has a surprisingly deep line given its author’s mental state.  Her craziness will become clearer later, but she writes that forgiveness is more than saying sorry.  Without me bringing my Catholic Faith into this discussion for the moment, we all know this is true.  I am sure anyone reading this can think of instances, either from ourselves or hearing it from others, of attempting to make amends without meaning it.  At the most basic level, “sorry” is a smaller word than “forgiveness” by six letters.  From a person-to-person point of view, we might say sorry to someone we bump into on accident, and chances are you are somewhat sincere in that moment.  An argument can be made that forgiveness is something reserved for bigger occasions.  The biggest word for this is reconciliation, and it is a Sacrament for us Catholics to repair the damage sin does to our relationship with God.  He forgives the contrite heart.  Can the same thing happen between friends?  Read on to find out.

The Just Friends in question are Chris Brander (Ryan Reynolds) and Jamie Palamino (Amy Smart).  It is 1995, and these two New Jersey high schoolers have just graduated.  The overweight Chris sits in front of his shrine (probably the creepiest aspect of the movie) to the years of friendship he has had with the gorgeous Jamie.  He believes that he will be spending an evening with her and their two mutual friends, Clark (Fred Ewanuick) and Darla (Amy Matysio), making it the perfect opportunity to give Jamie back her yearbook.  In it, Chris’ inscription contains his true feelings for her, how he hopes they can be boyfriend and girlfriend.  Instead, when he gets to her house, the entire senior class in present.  As he tries to be alone with her so he can give her his message, he keeps being interrupted.  The first is a drunk jock named Tim (Ty Olsson), who also has a yearbook but makes inappropriate advances.  The other is Dusty “Dusty Lee” Dinkleman (Chris Klein), who is just as dorky as Chris, but is unable to perform the song written for Jamie.  Chris and Jamie are interrupted once more when Tim can be heard loudly reading Chris’ words, having inadvertently taken the wrong yearbook.  Chris is embarrassed before all his peers and despite Jamie defending him, he leaves angrily vowing to “show them.”  He has vengeance in his heart, in other words, but ten years later he is a slimmed down hunk working in showbusiness, in the music industry.  He has no trouble getting women, and he is consistently in the company of celebrities.  His boss at the record label at which he works, KC (Stephen Root), wants Chris to continue to move in famous circles by ordering the executive to travel with Samantha.  Because they had previously dated, Chris is not thrilled by the prospect of hanging out with her.  Given no choice, he boards a plane with her to spend Christmas in Paris.  En route, she attempts to heat up some food in the microwave of their private jet, but keeps the tin foil in the packaging.  The resulting fire forces them to land at a small airstrip an hour away from his hometown in New Jersey.  He had not been back in ten years, but Carol Brander (Julie Hagerty), his mom, is excited to see him.  His younger brother, Mike Brander (Christopher Marquette) is also excited, but mainly because he has the kind of crush on Samantha of which only a teenage boy is capable, if you get my meaning. . . .  Between Mike’s attitude and mom’s well-meaning ditziness, Chris and Samantha depart almost immediately for the local bar.  Within moments of entering the premises, there is a mini ten-year reunion, seeing Clark, Darla, and Tim all there having drinks.  More importantly, Jamie is there working.  She is shocked by the change in Chris, and initially tries to hide from him.  He is equally amazed at seeing her, and all his old feelings are reignited.  What is most different, though, is his bearing.  She agrees to have lunch with him, which he believes to be an automatic pass to the friend zone, but he goes along with it anyway.  His plan is to treat her like all her high school boyfriends had done, thinking that to be the way to get into her pants.  She is not expecting a different person like Chris currently is, and their interaction goes poorly.  The second instance of them spending time together goes from bad to worse when, following a poor showing playing hockey despite his skills, he is injured.  The person who comes to take him away in an ambulance is a now handsome Dusty Lee, who is an emergency medical technician (EMT) that everyone around town likes.  The only thing that Chris gets from this moment is the notion that Jamie wants the sensitive type as Dusty Lee appears to be.  If you are wondering about Samantha, every time she tries to derail Chris’ plans with Jamie, he finds a way to get Mike to take his place.  Aside from the injuries she sustains from her inane clumsiness, her frustration only rises as Chris focuses on Jamie.  Samantha’s anger turns into an outburst as she drives the Brander’s car through the Palamino’s front yard Christmas display.  Despite this, Jamie does find the card Chris had written for her, containing the 100 reasons why he thought so highly of her when they were in high school.  Touched, she tries to sleep with him, but he finds himself unable to make a move, wanting more than a one-night stand with her.  While explaining what happened to Clark, who has a dental practice at the hospital, they spot Dusty Lee making out with a nurse.  Dusty Lee does not try to hide it, either, saying that he is out to hook up with Jamie just like Chris.  Chris’ attempts, sober and otherwise, to prevent Dusty Lee and Jamie from having sex do not go well, and Chris returns to Los Angeles in shame.  However, when he gets home, he is startled by Samantha’s presence.  Another dose of her insanity gets him to return to New Jersey and make amends with Jamie.

Making amends with somebody with whom you want to be more than Just Friends is another of those big moments discussed in the introduction.  Jamie is able to forgive Chris because she loves him.  That was how their situation went, but forgiveness and reconciliation are two different concepts, which is why us Catholics see it as a Sacrament.  You can forgive someone, but that does not mean your relationship carries on in the same manner as it previously did.  Change is inevitable, and it can be either good or bad.  When Chris left New Jersey, he clearly needed a new situation.  Going back to his hometown afforded him the opportunity for forgiveness.  To achieve it, he had to realize that he was no longer the person he once was, either in high school or in Los Angeles.  To be clear, neither Chris or Jamie is looking for a relationship as a Catholic would understand it.  She clearly wanted to have sex the night she spent with him, and kudos to him for realizing that would just make their situation worse.  Speaking from my own experience, hooking up like that simply for the pleasure of the flesh is a difficult thing to forgive oneself for doing.  This is not to suggest that it is okay to do it with someone if you intend to marry that person.  I get that the temptation is difficult to resist, but Chris deserves credit for understanding that there is something more he wants from Jamie.  He outlines his goals for her when he returns to New Jersey at the end, saying he wants to marry her and start a family.  This aligns with her plans, as well as a traditional Catholic marriage I might add, and therefore her forgiveness, indeed their reconciliation, is more easily achieved.  Just like with Confession, truly reconciling with someone, be it God or a long-time crush, takes a contrite heart.

There are some things to be sorry for in watching Just Friends.  There is some dated homophobia, and I could do without the innuendo.  Much of this is typical of Ryan Reynolds’ early work, but this one actually has more of a heart than others.  It is, at least, decent.