Thanks to the evolution of the movie trailer, we can pretty much figure out traditional and formulated movies before they hit the flickering wall of our local theater. By giving away the plot in a 30-second commercial and seeing the actors involved, we piece together the rest of the plot through our knowledge that there aren’t too many new stories coming out of Hollywood.

The trailer for Kissing a Fool threw at us a rehashed story of good girl falling for the wrong guy with Mr. Right watching helplessly from his corner of an isosceles love triangle. Right away, I put Fool off as another Wedding Singer or My Best Friend’s Wedding movies that carried the same basic premise.

Like all movies stuck with this storyline, Fool revolves around an imminent wedding. This time, we’re given the ceremony at the beginning with Samantha (Mili Avital) kissing an anonymous groom. Egad, who could it be?

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The identity of the groom falls between two lifelong friends. Groom candidate No. 1, Max (David Schwimmer), is the front-runner with his natural, girl-attracting good looks and job as a popular Chicago sportscaster. But dark horse Jay (Jason Lee) could be the groom since Samantha is the one editing his novel about love, heartbreak and all the other mushy things involved with falling for someone.

Courtesy of Samantha’s publisher boss Linda (Bonnie Hunt), the triangle begins to unfold via flashback, and not 15 minutes later I knew who the groom would be. Granted, after reading this (or flipping a coin), you may have an idea too.

A breakup with his perfect yet faithfully-challenged girlfriend provides the inspiration for Jay’s book and a reason to stay away from women altogether. So in his emotional disarray, Jay hooks Max up with Samantha.

Fireworks. Bells. Hearts. Whistles. Max and Samantha land in the path of one of Cupid’s arrows. The two move in together and rings appear on each other’s fingers.

But everything transpires too fast for Max (no way!), and his uncertainty about Samantha’s devotion to him gets the best of him. So he comes up with a brilliant plan to test Samantha’s loyalty that consists of Jay who has been spending a lot of time with Samantha because of the book making a move for her just to see if she will respond. But the test never takes place the way it should, which shook my predicted outcome up for awhile.

People may find Schwimmer’s (of television’s Friends) take at a self-centered, pompous ladies man a ridiculous miscast or a fresh move for an actor trying to avoid being typecast as a whiny pushover. I think his What up? catch phrase and the attachment he has for the semi-celebrity aspect of his job were perfect. It’s when the pushover side he’s so used to playing snuck out that kept his performance average.

Lee escapes the one-dimensional, wisecracking bite of his previous characters in Chasing Amy and Mallrats, but keeps his bitterness at life, which makes the heartbroken Jay the best part of Fool. Avital charms as Samantha which makes her more than just another pretty face attracted by the opposite personality.

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The rehashed story groundwork for this picture irked me. The script offers laughs especially in the big confrontational scene at the dinner table but not enough to make me feel awkward about liking it as much as I did.

Directed by Doug Ellin

Written by James Frey