"Catch and Release" is a movie about love lost and love found, friendship, companionship, responsibility - it's a story about life. It stars Jennifer Garner as Gray, a young widow (to be) who losses his fiance when he goes on fishing on his Bachelor's Party. Their supposedly wedding day becomes his funeral- her greatest tragedy and loss for their 6-year relationship. Gray was accompanied by her fiance's bestfriends during the funeral, but she can't handle the crowd and runs upstairs to the bathroom and pours her heart out while sitting in the empty bathtub. She was appalled when one of her fiance's bestfriends rushes in with a flirty maid, and they were making out! The newcomers didn't know she was there, and not until the girl left did Gray show herself. Fritz was astonished when he sees her and as she was leaving, she told him that she wonders why Grady (her fiance) was ever friends with him.
Gray goes on with her life without him, but with Sam and Dennis, whom she loves as her own bestfriends too. But she was not pleased to see Fritz still hanging around the house even after the funeral. When Gray sees a lawyer, she finds out that Grady has some great fortune from his investments, but she also learns that he was sending money to somebody regularly and she wonders who was it. She receives a call one night and realizes it was a woman who was making some demands to her late fiance. She discovers from Fritz that the money he's been sending regularly was for her- because they have a son. He tells her that what happened between the girl and Grady was just once, and when he knew that they had a son, he felt obliged to support the kid, and that was their only relationship. He also tells her that this happened some eight years ago and way before they had been together. But the truth comes out when one morning, Maureen and her son stumbled down at Gray's place looking for Grady. Gray pretends she was a cleaning woman and promises to send Grady her message. She rushes over to Fritz and finds out that Maureen and Grady had an affair during their relationship, not before. They argue over this but, end up kissing.
Maureen and her son Mattie visited them again and offered to prepare a dinner. At the dinner table, she confesses to them a lot of things that Grady never knew about her, just letting them know that she's not really "perfect" as what they all see of her. During the night, Gray slips out of her room and lies beside Fritz. They were disturbed by Sam who walks to the refrigerator in the middle of the night. Gray returns to her bedroom unnoticed by Sam.
The whole lot goes on a fishing trip, Sam teaches Mattie how to fish and gives him Grady's hat, Maureen on her body balancing exercises, Fritz takes photos, Gray reads a book, and Dennis approaches her, confessing to her that he loves her for the past six years.
Sam accompanies Maureen and Mattie to the hospital for DNA test, if he's really the son of Grady, he inherits his entire fortune. He later brings them back to the motel where they stay. Maureen gives Sam a massage to show her gratefulness, but later became intimate, only Sam suddenly gets back to his senses. Dennis brings a date into their house, who later ditches him because of some annoying message she sees on a paper. Dennis drinks alone, smashing bottles and things within his reach. But being the responsible guy that he is, he starts picking up the mess , as Fritz and Gray enters the room, holding hands together. This brings Dennis to more depression and frustration. He releases his angst to their front door, scraping it with a planer and when Sam arrives and realizes what he was doing, they scrambled on the floor to get the planer away from each other. Fritz suddenly comes out from Gray's bedroom, and walked away from the two, who immediately halted when they saw him. Gray wakes up finding Fritz gone, but with a note on the pillow, "coffee". She gets up and sees Dennis looking up some pictures of Grady. He immediately talks about her being inlove with somebody else, but Gray just shrugs it off, saying it was nothing, less than nothing. This was overheard by Fritz from the patio, who was about to bring their cups of coffee and Gray doesn't notice him. She offers to find some better pictures for Dennis.
Gray went to their storage room and rummaged though the piles for pictures and she notices what was hanging from the corner, her wedding dress. She puts it on and slouches on the sofa, where Fritz sees her, and bids her goodbye. He tells her what he overhears, but nothing she says stops him from leaving.
The DNA test result comes out, Ellen, Grady's mother and Gray, hears from Eve, the lawyer, that Mattie is not the son of Grady. Ellen leaves feeling somehow disappointed. When Maureen learns of this, she insisted there must be a mistake, but realizes that the true father of Mattie may be the French man she once met. She says sorry for all the mess she had caused, and that she'll move on with life.
At the peace garden created by Grady's friends in his memory, Ellen hands out some money for Maureen and Mattie. This was because Gray tells her that whatever help Grady gave them when he was still alive must be continued, even if they already knew that Mattie was not his real son. She talks of all the things he knew about Grady to the people who attended, and later thanks Ellen for the help she gave Maureen. She hands out her engagement ring back to her but Ellen insisted for her to keep it.
Dennis moves out of the house, even if Sam doesn't want to, but later finds another roommate, Maureen and Mattie. Gray bids them farewell too, tells them that she has to go to someplace. She drives all the way to Los Angeles, to a house near the beach, where he finds Fritz, playing catch with his dog. He stops whatever Gray has to say, and just tells her what took her so long.
...and they lived happily ever after. It would be the fitting end, wouldn't it? I really liked the romance incurred in the movie, and overall, I think it was really good, in all it's simplicity and reality. After all, friendship and love are the best things in the world!
