In 2 Chronicles 33, it talks about the impiety of Manasseh, one of the line of Davidic kings to rule Israel in the centuries before Jesus.  He is one of the monarchs to stray from God, and if you read the history, you will see that when this happens, evil comes upon the land.  A mark of this disobedience is following the customs attached to other faith traditions.  Verse six says, “He practiced soothsaying and divination, and reintroduced the consulting of ghosts and spirits.”  By this point you may be asking yourself what this has to do with Just My Luck (2006), a romantic comedy starring Lindsay Lohan and Chris Pine?  If you look up Scriptures that pertain to luck, you will not find anything pertaining specifically to that word.  However, the problem is seeing it as some kind of god.  The true God is not some kind of magical, wish-fulfilling entity that will make everything work out in your life.  His constant is love, whether we are having good days or bad.  The characters in today’s film believe they have a type of power controlling their fate, and that is problematic from a Faith perspective.  At the same time, I did not hate my viewing of the movie.  Weird, huh?

Speaking of weird, you might think Ashley Albright’s (Lindsay Lohan) ability to make the rain stop upon stepping outside or getting a cab on a busy street to be more than what she would call “Just My Luck.”  On the opposite side of the spectrum is Jake Hardin (Chris Pine).  If Ashley finds a five-dollar bill that attached to her shoe from a puddle, he will spot the same bill in a trash can covered in dog poop, attempt to clean it off in the pond in the park, and get arrested for bumbling into a woman and being accused of attempted assault.  One might make the argument that his rushing to meet record executive Damon Phillips (Faizon Love), trying to give Damon a demo tape for a band Jake manages call McFly, is the cause for this string of events.  While Jake is being taken to jail, Ashley is early to a meeting her public relations company has with Damon.  Ashley’s co-workers are late, being stuck in an elevator.  The mechanical malfunction means she is left alone to give her presentation for a soiree he wants them to host.  He is impressed with her idea for a masquerade, and because he is impressed, so is Peggy Braden (Missi Pyle), Ashley’s boss.  Peggy asks Ashley to be in charge of the event, which means a promotion.  As for Jake, McFly gives him one more opportunity to get them noticed or they plan to return to England.  Jake’s stalking of Damon brings the hapless man to Ashley’s party.  Disguising himself as one of the professional ballroom dancers, Jake again tries to make his way towards Damon.  Instead, Jake is distracted by Ashley, and it is your classic love at first sight.  He asks her to dance, and since most of her work is seemingly done, she accepts.  Such are the sparks between them that they are kissing before they have taken only a few steps, though their identities are hidden from each other.  The only thing that breaks them apart is Jake seeing Damon headed out the door.  Ashley is left behind and she promptly breaks the heel of her shoe.  Further, the date with whom she had set up her boss turns out to be a male prostitute, leading to Ashley’s arrest and eventual firing.  As she is being led away in handcuffs, she recalls a few minutes previously when she had talked with Madame Z (Tovah Feldshuh), a fortune teller and tarot card reader.  The prognosticator predicted that Ashley’s luck would change, which was ignored at the time but is now proving prophetic.  On the other hand, this is working great for Jake.  Finally catching up with Damon outside the venue, Jake is in time to save the executive from an errant taxi that had been run off the road.  Such is Damon’s gratitude that he invites Jake and McFly to come to his studio.  The good fortune continues with a deal after one hearing and an invitation to make more music.  With Ashley, after she gets out of jail, she comes home to a wrecked apartment, the result of a sudden mold outbreak.  She moves in with some friends, but things get worse.  The guy she had been dating, David Pennington (Chris Carmack), son of the owner of the Boston Celtics, dumps her when she ruins his mother’s art opening.  Somehow, this also leads to another incarceration.  Getting out in the morning, she passes a diner where Jake happens to be having breakfast.  Some more improbable bumbling occurs to get him to notice her, and as far as he can tell, she has the same gift for misfortune he once had.  Therefore, he decides to offer her a job at the bowling alley he once worked at, which is also where he discovered McFly.  To her credit, she is not too proud to say no, and this is the beginning of a romance.  It gets a boost when he is passing by his former place of employment and sees her walk outside in the middle of a rainstorm.  He offers her a ride, stopping at his place to wash her soaked clothes.  When hearing about the trouble McFly is having finding another hit, she offers the services of her musician friend and roommate, Maggie Smith (Samaire Armstrong). McFly performs one of Maggie’s songs, and Ashley is invited to listen.  As they play, Ashley overhears Damon and Jake talking about the night they met, and she realizes he had been the guy she kissed at the party.  Giving Jake another smooch, Ashley knows her luck has returned, and it is evidenced when she runs into Peggy outside, who offers to re-hire Ashley immediately.  However, this means that Jake’s career is about to take a turn for the worse.  Instead of going back to Peggy, Ashely gets Maggie to McFly’s big concert and helps Jake be a success.  Not wanting to interfere anymore, she is about to take a train out of the city to visit her parents and sort out her life when Jake catches up to her.

Given that Just My Luck is a romantic comedy, I think you can fill in the rest.  And as I discussed in the introduction, I was slightly annoyed by the way the film talked about luck.  There is more to say about the subject, though.  Along with the belief in bad or good fortune, there is also a lot about superstition.  You see black cats, broken mirrors, and salt being thrown over shoulders.  While the latter of these is done to prevent unfortunate things from happening, the others are supposedly portents of ill.  The problem with these concepts is that they are random.  There is nothing random about God.  While we are given the grace of free will, and can choose to believe in this kind of nonsense, there is also a definite plan that has been in place from the beginning for our ultimate benefit.  The catch, of course, is that you have to not just believe, but to love God “with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” as it says in Mark 12:30.  It is not an easy thing to do, which is why it is called “practicing” the Faith.  In many respects, it is easier to put credence in what we see with our eyes.  We cannot, normally, literally gaze upon God face-to-face.  However, if a black cat crosses our path and we immediately trip and fall on a crack in the concrete, it is simpler to associate the two in our minds.  However, had we not noticed the feline and paid more attention to where we were stepping, would the same set of circumstances apply?  Still, let us say for the sake of argument that God had presented Ashley with a preternatural gift to have all events work in her favor, and that she becomes aware of it.  Where this movie succeeds, and most critics of it likely take for granted given the material, is that she is willing to give it up in the end for the benefit of another.  I may not agree with some of the content, but selflessness will always be praised by this Catholic.

I daresay that Lohan’s character in Just My Luck is a good one.  Indeed, outside of a few examples that I am not sure I will ever cover, few of her films feature her playing somebody lacking integrity.  I know she had some rough times, but I think she does fine work, and I slightly recommend this one.