On the Line
Kevin (Lance Bass) is performing with his band at a high school graduation party. When he sees an attractive girl, his band-mates try to get him to sing to her and ask her out. He becomes nervous, and…
On the Line
Kevin (Lance Bass) is performing with his band at a high school graduation party. When he sees an attractive girl, his band-mates try to get him to sing to her and ask her out. He becomes nervous, and envisions himself nude in front of everyone, and faints. Fast-forward 7 years, and Kevin's in advertising. He makes a pitch for Reebok that gets shot down. His boss Mr Higgins (Dave Foley) tells him that he needs a lot of charisma and confidence, which is the image Reebok wants to portray. Boss assigns Kevin to work in a team with Jackie (Tamala Jones), who basically thinks that Kevin is a bit useless and a pain in the neck. She doesn't like much the ideas put forward by Kevin. Boss presents the slogan for Reebok, "Step into the Future", but they expected a warmer tagline. Kevin is blamed for the disaster, and in frustration, he starts daydreaming. Kevin takes the train home from work. Taken away by the music he is listening to, he stands up and sings it aloud. All the rest of the commuters look at him like he's a weird guy, except for one girl. He meets Abbey (Emmanuelle Chriqui). They hit it off talking about their similar interests (The Cubs, Al Green, etc.). They start talking. She studies archaeology, and she notices his company pass saying he works for FKR agency. They keep on chatting, and they get off in the same station. While they are leaving, he asks her to tell him something which she would only tell a complete stranger she will never see again. So, she says that her dad is a pilot and that she loves creating paper planes. His secret is that he can name all the presidents in order. She can name them as well. As they go their separate ways, they hesitate but eventually leave. They each go home and discuss the encounter with their friends. He decides to try to find Abbey by making posters and placing them all over town. The poster says "Are you her? We met on the train. We talked about the presidents" with his telephone number. He distributes this all over town. He goes out with a few random women who answer the call, none of which are Abbey. The weirdo who wants to date Kevin felt a "cosmic connection" with him by reading his poster. The local newspaper finds out about his search and sets up an interview. The reporter, Brady Frances (Dan Montgomery, Jr.), is an old classmate who hates him. In high school Brady asked a girl out to prom, and she promptly asked Kevin who was standing nearby, then returned to Brady and said she was taken. The article comes out in the paper and Kevin gets hundreds of calls, which leads to his dateless roommates - aspiring musician Rod (Joey Fatone), Eric (GQ), and the art nut Randy (James Bulliard) suggesting they date all the callers to help. Eric has the idea shot down when he originally pitches it to Kevin, but while Kevin is at work one day, Eric calls and asks him to reconsider. The people at Reebok want Kevin officially on the team which is working on their campaign, as they want that kind of passion. Margie the Receptionist (Jenny Parsons) is the one who has to deal with some of the prank calls It is poor timing, as Kevin is having a conversation with his boss, Higgins (Dave Foley). Mr Higgins thinks that Kevin is still lacking drive and confidence. He wants more involvement from Kevin in Reebok. When Kevin gives a "Yes" answer to a question from Higgins, Eric hears him at the other end of the line and hangs up. A follow up article comes out in which Brady presents Kevin as a loser, which makes even more girls call. Brady gets more upset when his girlfriend Julie (Amanda Foreman), who is rather bothered by his still-intense grudge against Kevin, takes Kevin's side. While the search is going on Abbey is having problems with her boyfriend of 3 years, whom she was visiting when she met Kevin. Her boyfriend buys tickets to an Al Green concert but then cancels at the last minute. Kevin is also at the concert, but they never see each other, despite several close calls. Soon, Eric, Rod, and Randy begin taking calls from many girls, and going on dates with them, for their own enjoyment, although some of the dates were quite strange. Back in Chicago, Abbey finally sees the newspaper article about Kevin. She phones him but it's one of his friends who picks it up. All his friends are dating these girls pretending to be Kevin, so one of them sets a date on Saturday evening with Abbey. When Abbey arrives to the restaurant she realizes that he is not Kevin. The friend runs after her and he realizes that this time, she is the real deal. He makes her believe that Kevin knows and approves of his friends dating the lonely girls who call him. Abbey gets mad when she finds out Kevin's friends are taking the dates. Another girl who answers the call is Brady's girlfriend, Julie. When she tells him the friends are answering the calls and dating the girls Brady writes another article declaring the scam. The first thing Kevin notices is that Margie doesn't want to talk to him. Higgins also calls him to his office and takes him out of the Reebok team. At work, Reebok decides they won't work with Kevin once the article comes out and he is taken off the project, even though it was his idea. Kevin's pitch is later used in the meeting by Jackie who presents it as hers at the last minute. After work Kevin sees Abbey waiting for the train. He tries to get her attention, but she doesn't see him till she's getting on the train. He runs to get on but the doors close. As he knocks on her window, she smacks the paper with the headline "Train Man Scam" against the window as the train pulls away, signifying that she is upset with him. Kevin also learns that Abbey responded to his public search for her, and when he learns that Eric went out on a date with her without telling him, he punches Eric. His friends, who feel guilty about the whole situation, decide to search for Abbey themselves. They put up their own posters, with a hand drawn image of her, and ride the train for days. At first people aren't interested in helping, until Eric makes a speech about being in love, ending it with, "Love may not make the world go 'round, but it's what makes the ride worthwhile." He gets a standing ovation from everyone on the train except Abbey, sitting in stunned silence behind the other passengers. Things continue going downhill when Kevin learns his best friend at the agency, Nathan (Jerry Stiller), suffers a heart attack. Kevin goes to see Nathan at a rehab facility, where Nathan tells him the story of both meeting his wife at a Chicago Cubs game and catching a home run from Cubs legend Ernie Banks the same day, and how the two tied together. He gives Kevin the baseball and tells him to try to find Abbey again. Things soon start going uphill for Kevin. For starters, he is put back on the ad campaign project. Jackie apologizes to Kevin, and places him in charge of the campaign's billboards. He changes the billboards to an apology to Abbey asking her to meet him at the station at 7 PM. The billboard is all over town and the media wait with him at the scheduled time. After 15 minutes of Abbey not showing up, the TV crew start packing up and the spectators begin to disperse, but all stop when Kevin picks up a paper airplane thrown by Abbey telling him to look up. Kevin races up a flight of stairs to a breezeway over the tracks, where he asks Abbey for her name, and number. Abbey responds with, "Abbey, and I'd thought you'd never ask." They then kiss, much to the delight of the crowd at the station, and to the television viewers at home, and in a bar where his roommates are watching. Life also gets better for Rod and Randy. Randy meets a girl at the bar while watching Kevin's meeting with Abbey, and finds that she, too, is interested in art. Meanwhile, Julie dumps Brady for Rod. Rod is offered a contract to the record label owned by his idol, Mick Silver (Richie Sambora), saying he liked Rod's demo tape, which Kevin sent in. Brady is given an advice column in the Living section of the Chicago Times.
On the Line
Comedy,Family,Romance
Film Details
Kevin (Lance Bass) is performing with his band at a high school graduation party. When he sees an attractive girl, his band-mates try to get him to sing to her and ask her out. He becomes nervous, and envisions himself nude in front of everyone, and faints.
Fast-forward 7 years, and Kevin's in advertising. He makes a pitch for Reebok that gets shot down. His boss Mr Higgins (Dave Foley) tells him that he needs a lot of charisma and confidence, which is the image Reebok wants to portray.
Boss assigns Kevin to work in a team with Jackie (Tamala Jones), who basically thinks that Kevin is a bit useless and a pain in the neck. She doesn't like much the ideas put forward by Kevin. Boss presents the slogan for Reebok, "Step into the Future", but they expected a warmer tagline.
Kevin is blamed for the disaster, and in frustration, he starts daydreaming. Kevin takes the train home from work. Taken away by the music he is listening to, he stands up and sings it aloud.
All the rest of the commuters look at him like he's a weird guy, except for one girl. He meets Abbey (Emmanuelle Chriqui). They hit it off talking about their similar interests (The Cubs, Al Green, etc.).
They start talking. She studies archaeology, and she notices his company pass saying he works for FKR agency. They keep on chatting, and they get off in the same station.
While they are leaving, he asks her to tell him something which she would only tell a complete stranger she will never see again. So, she says that her dad is a pilot and that she loves creating paper planes. His secret is that he can name all the presidents in order.
She can name them as well. As they go their separate ways, they hesitate but eventually leave. They each go home and discuss the encounter with their friends.
He decides to try to find Abbey by making posters and placing them all over town. The poster says "Are you her? We met on the train. We talked about the presidents" with his telephone number.
He distributes this all over town. He goes out with a few random women who answer the call, none of which are Abbey. The weirdo who wants to date Kevin felt a "cosmic connection" with him by reading his poster.
The local newspaper finds out about his search and sets up an interview. The reporter, Brady Frances (Dan Montgomery, Jr.), is an old classmate who hates him. In high school Brady asked a girl out to prom, and she promptly asked Kevin who was standing nearby, then returned to Brady and said she was taken.
The article comes out in the paper and Kevin gets hundreds of calls, which leads to his dateless roommates - aspiring musician Rod (Joey Fatone), Eric (GQ), and the art nut Randy (James Bulliard) suggesting they date all the callers to help. Eric has the idea shot down when he originally pitches it to Kevin, but while Kevin is at work one day, Eric calls and asks him to reconsider. The people at Reebok want Kevin officially on the team which is working on their campaign, as they want that kind of passion.
Margie the Receptionist (Jenny Parsons) is the one who has to deal with some of the prank calls It is poor timing, as Kevin is having a conversation with his boss, Higgins (Dave Foley). Mr Higgins thinks that Kevin is still lacking drive and confidence. He wants more involvement from Kevin in Reebok.
When Kevin gives a "Yes" answer to a question from Higgins, Eric hears him at the other end of the line and hangs up. A follow up article comes out in which Brady presents Kevin as a loser, which makes even more girls call. Brady gets more upset when his girlfriend Julie (Amanda Foreman), who is rather bothered by his still-intense grudge against Kevin, takes Kevin's side.
While the search is going on Abbey is having problems with her boyfriend of 3 years, whom she was visiting when she met Kevin. Her boyfriend buys tickets to an Al Green concert but then cancels at the last minute. Kevin is also at the concert, but they never see each other, despite several close calls.
Soon, Eric, Rod, and Randy begin taking calls from many girls, and going on dates with them, for their own enjoyment, although some of the dates were quite strange. Back in Chicago, Abbey finally sees the newspaper article about Kevin. She phones him but it's one of his friends who picks it up.
All his friends are dating these girls pretending to be Kevin, so one of them sets a date on Saturday evening with Abbey. When Abbey arrives to the restaurant she realizes that he is not Kevin. The friend runs after her and he realizes that this time, she is the real deal.
He makes her believe that Kevin knows and approves of his friends dating the lonely girls who call him. Abbey gets mad when she finds out Kevin's friends are taking the dates. Another girl who answers the call is Brady's girlfriend, Julie.
When she tells him the friends are answering the calls and dating the girls Brady writes another article declaring the scam. The first thing Kevin notices is that Margie doesn't want to talk to him. Higgins also calls him to his office and takes him out of the Reebok team.
At work, Reebok decides they won't work with Kevin once the article comes out and he is taken off the project, even though it was his idea. Kevin's pitch is later used in the meeting by Jackie who presents it as hers at the last minute. After work Kevin sees Abbey waiting for the train.
He tries to get her attention, but she doesn't see him till she's getting on the train. He runs to get on but the doors close. As he knocks on her window, she smacks the paper with the headline "Train Man Scam" against the window as the train pulls away, signifying that she is upset with him.
Kevin also learns that Abbey responded to his public search for her, and when he learns that Eric went out on a date with her without telling him, he punches Eric. His friends, who feel guilty about the whole situation, decide to search for Abbey themselves. They put up their own posters, with a hand drawn image of her, and ride the train for days.
At first people aren't interested in helping, until Eric makes a speech about being in love, ending it with, "Love may not make the world go 'round, but it's what makes the ride worthwhile." He gets a standing ovation from everyone on the train except Abbey, sitting in stunned silence behind the other passengers. Things continue going downhill when Kevin learns his best friend at the agency, Nathan (Jerry Stiller), suffers a heart attack. Kevin goes to see Nathan at a rehab facility, where Nathan tells him the story of both meeting his wife at a Chicago Cubs game and catching a home run from Cubs legend Ernie Banks the same day, and how the two tied together.
He gives Kevin the baseball and tells him to try to find Abbey again. Things soon start going uphill for Kevin. For starters, he is put back on the ad campaign project.
Jackie apologizes to Kevin, and places him in charge of the campaign's billboards. He changes the billboards to an apology to Abbey asking her to meet him at the station at 7 PM. The billboard is all over town and the media wait with him at the scheduled time.
After 15 minutes of Abbey not showing up, the TV crew start packing up and the spectators begin to disperse, but all stop when Kevin picks up a paper airplane thrown by Abbey telling him to look up. Kevin races up a flight of stairs to a breezeway over the tracks, where he asks Abbey for her name, and number. Abbey responds with, "Abbey, and I'd thought you'd never ask." They then kiss, much to the delight of the crowd at the station, and to the television viewers at home, and in a bar where his roommates are watching.
Life also gets better for Rod and Randy. Randy meets a girl at the bar while watching Kevin's meeting with Abbey, and finds that she, too, is interested in art. Meanwhile, Julie dumps Brady for Rod.
Rod is offered a contract to the record label owned by his idol, Mick Silver (Richie Sambora), saying he liked Rod's demo tape, which Kevin sent in. Brady is given an advice column in the Living section of the Chicago Times..