Near the climax of the new romantic comedy Hitch, one character makes an impassioned, against-the-odds plea for true love. "What if fine isn't good enough?" he demands. "What if I want extraordinary?"

If it's extraordinary you want, you're probably at the wrong movie. (Consider instead the film that Hitch briefly quotes, but cannot begin to match-Cameron Crowe's letter-perfect romantic comedy, Jerry Maguire.) But if fine is good enough-as it was for the happy crowd with whom I saw Hitch on Valentine's Eve-then you could do worse than this energetic, if cheerfully unoriginal, film.

That's because director Andy Tennant (Sweet Home Alabama) wisely hitches his movie to star Will Smith, an actor so winning he makes you forgive if not entirely forget the film's shortcomings, starting with an uneven screenplay that asks its leading man to look the camera square in the eye and declare that what matters in life are not "the number of breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away." (Lines like that can leave you gasping for breath, but that's something else altogether.)

Fortunately, Hitch asks Smith to do many other things he does exceptionally well, such as being attractive, self-deprecating and duly appalled at the sight of white men trying to get down. And then there's the scene where, following an unfortunate brush with shellfish, he takes a romantic stroll with the woman of his dreams, stoned out of his mind on Benadryl, his head swollen to the size of a pumpkin. In short, Smith was made for date films, and it's amazing he hasn't been cast this way before.

Hitch not only provides Smith with his first romantic comedy role, it also gives him the perfect (which is to say perfectly preposterous) romantic comedy job. He is Alex Hitchens, aka "The Date Doctor," a much sought-after "dating coach" who helps his male clients successfully navigate Manhattan's highly competitive social scene, but who strenuously avoids real romantic commitment himself.

That is until he meets Sara Melas (Eva Mendes), a gossip columnist with a New York tabloid. And who could blame him? Mendes is a total knockout, and she plays Sara like a latter-day Rosalind Russell, firing off cynical quips and fending off lesser Lotharios with what Hitch rightly calls "that 'fuck-off' message written across your forehead." Also lending able support is Albert (Kevin James) as one of Hitch's clients, a portly accountant who dares to dream big-that is, of wooing celebrity Allegra Cole (Amber Valetta).

The churlish might point out that supermodels tend to marry tycoons, not accountants, and that any real-life "Date Doctor" would probably welcome the kind of sleazy, just-in-it-for-the-sex client that Hitch gallantly spurns. But romantic comedies are fairy tales for grownups, and like kids, we don't ask so much that tales be believable as that they be well told. Hitch may not be a first-rate fairy tale, but in Will Smith it has one very charming prince.