ON THE LINE

’N Sync front man James Lance Bass makes his big-screen debut in this plucky romantic comedy. As Kevin Gibbons, he’s no crooning superstar but rather a lost idealist brimming with sensitivity and creativity — in short, he’s an ad-concept developer. One day on the Chicago El, he meets his soulmate, a soft, sophisticated, brown-eyed beauty (Emmanuelle Chriqui), but he’s too bashful to ask for her name or phone number. Feeling like a career non-risk-taker, Kevin fires off a citywide ad campaign to find his true love. The story makes front-page news, but when Kevin’s fart-launching roommates decide to leverage his new-found fame to score dates, the story ends up making headlines again, for all the wrong reasons.

Director Eric Bross keeps the pacing sprightly, and Bass is a pleasant surprise as the romantic lead. This is no thespian triumph, and neither is the film a masterpiece by any stretch, but it is well constructed fluff that gets as much mileage out of Joey Fatone’s Def Leopard covers and Jerry Stiller’s hemorrhoid complaints as it does out of the central love story.

— Tom Meek