Fishing is not the most exciting sport. It’s long, boring and you get excited when anything happens.Unfortunately, the same traits can be said for ‘Catch and Release.’ Jennifer Garner plays Gray Wheeler, a recently semi-widower after her fianc dies during a bachelor party fishing trip. She is then forced to deal with the aftereffects of the death as friends are brought together and secrets are revealed. This film contains everything a romantic comedy shouldn’t have. Predictable plots, underdeveloped characters, sappy lines and a terrific blend of overly-dramatic spontaneous sex, revealing conversation (overheard by accident, of course), romantic confessions and an under-explained suicide attempt (and not by the grieving Garner). It’s not that Garner is terrible; she’s just not great. Her character blends into the background, switching between grieving, which comes across as sulking, and recovering, which somehow involved falling for her fianc’s womanizer-with-a-heart-of-gold best friend. In fact, the best way to describe Garner’s character was already done by screenwriter-turned-director, Susannah Grant (‘Erin Brockovich’), by giving her such an unfortunate first name.The real problem with ‘Catch and Release’ is Grant tries too hard to create both a romantic comedy and a touching quaint-art flick. Taking place in the beautiful woodlands of Boulder, Colo., the film has no concept of passing time. It’s always sunny during the day and clear-skied during the night. The film could take place over a month or a year (probably closer to the former, but in actuality it feels like the latter). There are no transitions from scene-to-scene, with one ending and the next beginning instantaneously. The only pauses are through the film’s awkward dialogue or awkward sexual tension, and these only help to show how no one in the audience is laughing, or even caring. In fact, the only humor at all comes from Kevin Smith (yes, that Kevin Smith, and he has a fake Lightsaber fight with a 4-year-old). His quirky fun-loving bursts of energy are amusing at first, but become tiresome very quickly. There’s a joke here about a reason why he stays silent in previous films, but it’s clearly beneath me. One must also not forget to mention the blatant product placement that goes on throughout the film. No, nothing extravagant like soft drinks or computers, but a wide variety of Celestial Seasonings’ herbal teas appear often. This is as exciting as it gets. If commercial aspects like this do represent a film’s audience, I would be surprised if there will be any screenings of this film after 6 p.m. The only perk of the movie is its soundtrack played over some incredibly beautiful cinematography of outdoor landscapes. Light-rock Indie bands like Death Cab for Cutie, Gomez, Gary Jules and The Magic Numbers help enhance the gorgeous miles of forest and soothing rivers that are constant backgrounds.Yet, like being in the outdoors, you have to know when to come back in. And if ‘Catch and Release’ is any indication, you might be better off not fishing at all today.