Often in the movies, characters don’t catch on until the film’s end to what is obvious to the audience from the beginning.

Why? Well, quite simply, if the characters were smarter, movies would often end immediately following the opening credits.

In “Kissing a Fool,” the main characters are completely oblivious to what the audience knows in the first 10 minutes of the movie.

Jason Lee costars as Jay, a sensitive and heartbroken young author. You may remember Lee from his role as Brodie in “Mallrats,” the guy who was obsessed with super hero genitalia, or as Banky in “Chasing Amy.”

For some reason, Jay decides to introduce his editor, Samantha, to his best friend since childhood, Max (David Schwimmer).

Samantha is a well-educated, sensitive woman who loves art and literature. Max is an oversexed, womanizing jerk of a sportscaster who thinks Australia is a country in Europe.

He’s also a “Whaddup” guy.

You know the type I’m talking about. They have condensed the phrase “What’s up?” down to “What up?” and finally to “Whaddup?” Then they use it all the time.

Max answers the phone and says “Whaddup?” He greets people he sees in a bar and says “Whaddup?” “

If it wasn’t so true of some people I know, it would have gotten very annoying. Well, it did get kind of annoying, but in an amusing way.

Max and Samantha are quickly engaged, even though it is quite clear that Jay is the better match for her. “Kissing a Fool” spends a lot of time showing how well Jay and Sam connect, and how incompatible she is with Max.

Max claims he loves Sam when Jay confronts. Why does Max love her so much? Because “she’s hot, she’s smart and she hates cats.” Sounds like love to me.

Then comes the contrived part. Max is afraid Sam will cheat on him someday and wants Jay to see if he can get her into bed. This scene exists only because without it, there would be no movie.

I’m just going to sum up the plot and say “etc.” here because the rest of the story falls exactly into place like you think it does.

“Kissing a Fool” opens at a wedding. The identity of the groom is carefully concealed from us. It’s obvious who the groom is, though. The wedding is being held at the home of Linda (Bonnie Hunt), who is Sam’s boss.

The movie cuts back to the wedding every few minutes so Linda can explain something and smoke. She always had a cigarette in her hand. The cigarette and the narration style got old after a while.

Even though the story is contrived and clich‚, there are some good things about “Kissing a Fool.”

It was nice to see Schwimmer in this kind of role. As Ross on “Friends,” he’s such a nice guy, a real schmuck sometimes. Here, he’s a complete jerk, a real departure from his television personality.

Most of the dialogue is smartly written, and you all know I love good dialogue. I especially liked the exchanges between Jay and Max. They sounded real, which was nice.

Overall, “Kissing a Fool” isn’t a terrible movie. The main characters, even though they’re fairly dumb, are likable.

And the performances are pretty good. Still, when you know how a movie is going to end in the first few minutes, why sit through the rest?

3 stars of five

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Mike Milik is a senior in advertising from West Des Moines.