Plot
Reuben Feffer (Ben Stiller), an insurance risk assessment expert, is celebrating his honeymoon with newlywed wife, Lisa Kramer (Debra Messing), on the island of St. Barts but catches her having sex with Claude (Hank Azaria), a French scuba instructor. Returning home to New York, he attempts to piece his life back together. Reuben goes to an art gallery with his friend, Sandy Lyle (Philip Seymour Hoffman), where he runs into former junior high school classmate Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston). Reuben and Polly begin dating, with her introducing him to activities he once wrote off as "too risky," such as eating at a Moroccan restaurant and salsa dancing, which culminates with the pair enthusiastically sleeping together, with Reuben shouting "50" as he orgasms.
The contrast between their two personalities is a source of comedy throughout the film until Lisa returns and tells him she wants to reconcile their relationship. Reuben is torn between the free-spirited Polly and the safe and familiar Lisa. To solve this issue he enters information about Polly and Lisa into a computer insurance program which measures risk. The computer tells him that, despite his numerous blunders with her, Polly is the best choice for him. Polly joins Reuben on a sailing trip he's going in order to inspect Leland Van Lew (Bryan Brown), a high risk client, but gets offended when she sees his risk analysis of herself and rejects his proposal to move in together, telling him that he'd be better off going back to Lisa. Back home, Reuben tries talking to Polly but to no avail. He eventually invites Lisa to Sandy's opening show, where he learns that Polly is leaving New York in a few hours. After a speech given by his father, Irving (Bob Dishy), to Sandy, Reuben realizes he wants to be with Polly and not Lisa, and he rushes to her apartment to stop her from leaving. Polly is not convinced she should stay with him, so Reuben eats food off the ground to prove he is capable of taking risks.
The movie ends with Reuben and Polly on the beach where he and Lisa had their honeymoon at the beginning of the film. Reuben again encounters Claude, but instead of being angry he thanks Claude, and then heads into the water with Polly.
Read more about this topic: Along Came Polly
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
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—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
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why are they no help to me now
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—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)