"Are there (something) in this movie?"

PREVIEW REVIEW: New romantic comedy just going through the motions — until it isn't!

LINKS: Green with Envy official trailer at iTunes

If someone hasn't already told you about this one, then read no further until after you've hit the above-listed link and watched the trailer for the new Amy Adams-Jason Segel romantic comedy Green with Envy. No, really, STOP READING and go watch the trailer. I promise to still be here after you're done.

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Waiting ... waiting ... aaaand, we're back! Pretty clever, huh? Clearly someone at the Walt Disney Company has a sense of humor, and obviously that person is Kermit the Frog. Not the actual Kermit, of course. The mildly anarchic spirit of Kermit creator Jim Henson, however, is alive and well in what is easily the best gimmick trailer of 2011. I happened to spot the trailer link while making a routine sweep of the iTunes trailer site and watched it cold with all of the same expectations that any seasoned filmgoer might have of a soft-lit, sappy trailer for something called Green with Envy. I even read the short film synopsis, which keeps the gag under wraps, preserving your sneering disdain right up to the moment that the voiceover guy just barely stumbles over reading the words "Kermit the Frog."

When you rewatch the "fake romantic comedy" part of the trailer after finding out what the game is, the spoofery is pretty sublime. I don't quite know whether it's a compliment to Adams and Segel that I completely bought Green with Envy as a real romantic comedy. I believed them entirely capable of having signed on to star in this movie, even despite the exceedingly weak sauce moment where She has to leave the hotel suite after He doesn't have dinner plans already in the works. That almost tipped me off, but then the faux-preview makes a brilliant recovery: The song cue with the New Radicals's "You Get What You Give," particularly on top of Segel's admittedly amusing "You know when you've been trying to figure something out" speech, is sheer genius. Sorry, Amy, but you did do that Ireland thing with Matthew Goode and Adam Scott, and that is exactly what Green with Envy is pretending to be.

On the other hand, once I realized what was really happening, I found the casting inspired. Adams, especially, could not be more right for the material (and frankly, yeah, fine, she seemed like a good fit for Green with Envy, too, even in those fleeting moments when I assumed it was some random paycheck gig). Segel also seems right at home surrounded by Muppets, and I fully expect the two of them to be delightful. Muppet movies aren't always a sure thing, but they've gotten off to an ideal start with this one. I'll be interested, come November, to find out whether they can carry this sense of humor through an entire film. The Muppets opens Nov. 23, just in time for Thanksgiving.