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In order for a romance movie to work, the lead characters have to be believable as a couple and likable as individuals. Those are critical components because if the audience doesn't like the characters, they won't care about them or what happens to them. This is a problem that plagued the 2001 production Sweet November right from the beginning, and the film never quite recovers from this first misstep.

Sweet November stars Keanu Reeves as Nelson Moss, a very driven and successful advertising big-shot. Moss is one of those guys who's constantly thinking about work (even while having sex with his girlfriend) and who can't seem to step back and enjoy life.

One day, as he's at the DMV to get his license renewed, he runs into a woman named Sara Deever, played by Charlize Theron. Deever is, as is usually the case in these types of movies, the exact opposite of Nelson. She doesn't have a high-powered career, isn't ruled by her cell phone, and doesn't arrange meetings. Instead, she is an animal rights advocate who lives a seemingly carefree, unconventional life.

Sara is taking the driver's license exam just like Nelson, and when he asks her for an answer to a particular question, she gets busted. She is thrown out of the exam room and told she can't come back for 30 days, during which time she won't be allowed to drive. Nelson sees Sara outside, apologizes for what happened, and tells her to call his secretary to get reimbursed for any money she might lose by not being able to drive.

But Sara apparently doesn't think that money would be sufficient recompense for what Nelson has done. She therefore shows up at his apartment and threatens to cause a scene unless he agrees to drive her somewhere. Nelson reluctantly does so, at which point Sara orders him to drive to Oakland so she can rescue a couple of cute puppies that were about to become the subject of scientific experiments.

By this point in the movie, viewers have a good idea of what kind of people Nelson and Sara are. Both, to me at any rate, were extremely annoying. Nelson was supposed to be a powerful exec, yet he let himself be pushed around by this woman. Sara was supposed to be a breath of fresh air or something, but she just came off as desperate and needy. Ugh.

Unfortunately, the story continues. Sara, true to her unconventional ways, can't even date men in a normal manner. Typical relationships are not an option for her, so what she does is allot a man 30 days -- one month -- to get to know her and then move on. In her words, one month is "long enough to be meaningful but short enough to stay out of trouble." As it so happens, she has the entire month of November free, and offers Nelson the chance to move in with her for that month.

Seeing as how Nelson recently got fired and how his girlfriend just left him, he accepts Sara's offer. Never mind the fact that he's only known her for a couple of days and that she has acted like a crazy woman that entire time.

So they move in together, genuinely fall in love, and then a plot twist (which any viewer can see coming from a mile away) crops up that stands in the way of that love.

As I said before, the characters in this movie simply weren't likable in any way. Their relationship wasn't based on any kind of solid foundation and wasn't believable in the least. The characters seemed to enjoy playing mind games with each other, which reminded me of a couple of high school or college kids rather than full-grown adults and served to make the entire situation even more cloying and unbelievable, if that's possible.

Plus, Keanu Reeves is just such a bad actor that I could barely stand watching him on the screen. His delivery is so wooden and emotionless that I had to fight the urge to laugh whenever he opened his mouth. Remind me to stay away from his movies in the future!

Overall, Sweet November is a film that isn't worth your time. Everything in this movie has been done before (and done much better), so don't bother.