Clever and often funny, My Date with Drew is a kind of slapdash excuse for a documentary feature, albeit one with a few surprises. A 27-year-old aspiring filmmaker, Brian Herzlinger, wins $1,100 on a game show (where the winning answer happened to be "Drew Barrymore"), and decides to use it to make a film about his aspiration to ask Barrymore out on a date. Enlisting a few eager and bemused producers and directors as allies, Herzlinger goes through a self-improvement campaign--exercising, finding out what Barrymore likes--while also interviewing people who know her, including actor Eric Roberts and Charlie's Angels co-screenwriter John August. The tricky part, of course, is not giving anyone the impression that Herzlinger is just a sophisticated stalker, especially when he's busy wrangling invitations to celebrity parties so he can get near the object of his lifelong crush. The film runs a little low on steam in its second half, and the suggestion that the movie is really about the beautiful pursuit of a worthwhile dream, and not just a first-feature gimmick, gets a little precious. But My Date with Drew is certainly worth seeing for its conclusion. --Tom Keogh

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