Well, this Book of Love movie looks like a bummer — honestly, I half-expected a Nicholas Sparks tie-in, but there doesn’t appear to be one — and I don’t think it’s a spoiler, based on her spectral image in the poster and the one-line synopsis on IMDb, to suggest that I think Biel plays a dead lady. Conveniently, I JUST tonight flipped on the 2001 cinematic head wound Summer Catch, in which Jessica Biel plays Freddie Prinze Jr.’s love interest and says things like, “If you want big rewards… you have to take BIG RISKS,” as if she is the first person ever to think of that. And remember that time she did Stealth, a movie in which a sentient plane basically falls in love with Josh Lucas? My point being that I had the thought, “Jessica Biel is hugely famous; I wonder why she doesn’t work more,” and then I wandered down her resume and it became clear why she just opened a restaurant instead. Anyhoo: I no-longer-secretly find Jessica Biel kind of a charming, besides which I’ve never heard anything but nice stories about her. So I would like to see her turn it UP all of a sudden on the career front and make Justin Timberlake escort her to Cannes, and do some major doting while she rakes in some trophies.

He did at least turn it out nicely here in support of her film, and she looks pretty good herself. The last time we saw her promoting this thing, she had on a too-tight olive mono-sleeved rotten martini of a dress; I like this blouse a lot better. It’s a decent example of how you CAN get away with a little transparency every now and again, when it’s not gimmicky and is also limited. I’m not sure I understand why the neck bow is dusting her crotch. But between the good-enough shirt, the creative makeup, and the fact that she clearly agrees with us about her bangs and is trying to scrape them away from her face, I’m feeling warmly toward La Biel and think she should come back to TV — The Great Revitalizer at the moment — and do something super weird and unexpected and character-focused. Like, yes, Fargo, my old standby suggestion, or something where she plays a send-up of herself. There is marrow to be sucked from those bones, Biel. Get to it.

[Photo: Fame/Flynet]