Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
2/20/07
I want to like romantic comedies.
I really do. But they don't make it easy for me, and I think it has
something to do with The Formula. You know, the exact plot structure
all romcoms (as they call them in the business) are required to follow
as surely as if they had a gun pointed at their adorable little heads.
Two people with nothing in common meet, fall in love, have a huge, hurtful
meltdown and then get back together. It doesn't sound so hard, except
that while most (though certainly not all) movies can lick the meeting
and the falling in love, the meltdown and the getting back together are
mighty obstacles indeed. While real-life couples fight all the time,
screenwriters can rarely come up with a reason to have people split up
that doesn't involve the revelation of monsterous, hugely unfunny lies
that reveal the characters to be so unlikeable that I no longer care about
their fates (are you listening, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days???).
And don't get me started about how often the getting back together part
seems so completely unmotivated it's as though the directors started screaming
in people's ears that the end titles are gonna roll in 5...4...3...
But enough about my issues,
because they don't really apply here except to say that I'm always happy
to come upon a movie that manages to navigate this romantic minefield and
come out unscathed on the other side. Music and Lyrics, the
delightful new pairing of Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, is such a movie.
Alex Fletcher (Hugh) was
part of a hugely popular 80's band called PoP! Not to put too fine
a point on the inspiration for his character, but Wham's Andrew Ridgeley
is either delighted or really pissed. Anyway, his value as a nostalgia
act at state fairs and amusement parks is in decline, and he has to consider
a reality boxing show called Battle of the 80's Pop Has-Beens.
But a great opportunity falls into his lap when current hitmaker Cora Corman
(Haley Bennett) comes looking for a “nostalgia act” to write her a song
and sing it as a duet.... and she needs it by Friday. The problem
is, Alex only wrote the melodies for PoP!'s hits, and so he needs a lyricist.
What about Sophie (Drew), the adorable but manic woman who waters his plants?
One of the great pleasures
of Music and Lyrics is that beyond this setup, there aren't a lot
of plot hoops to jump through. Alex and Sophie work on the song (and
how nice is it to see people in a movie actualy WORK on something creative
rather than have a montage and, BAM!, it's done), then struggle through
creative differences as Cora looks to make changes consistant with her
own desperation to stay on top. Marc Lawrence's screenplay manages
to thread this plot through the needle of the romcom format (something
he failed miserably to do in the 2002 Grant vehicle Two Weeks Notice)
without ever making it seem like the plot is driving the characters, rather
than the other way around. And even if it does drift a bit when the
relationship hits the inevitable speed bumps, the Big Finale at Cora's
Madison Square Garden concert got me appropriately weepy.
The key to the movie's success
is the winning chemistry between Grant (always at his best as characters
whose best days are behind them) and Barrymore (whose natural sweetness
helps her to make Sophie's instinctive need to ruin everything seem like
a problem rather than a plot point). Like his namesake Cary, Grant
was born for these sort of roles, and is able to wrap his mouth around
comic dialog in a way that makes almost anything sound funny. I also
really liked Bennett, making her film debut, who takes a role that's almost
always an irritating caricature (the pop star obsessed with Eastern philosophies
she doesn't really understand) and manages to make her sympathetic.
The way she says six words “Shakira is breathing down my neck!” at a party
tells you EVERYTHING you need to know about her life and worldview.
Reliable TV comedians Brad Garrett and Kristen Johnson provide solid support
as Alex's manager and Sophie's sister.
A project like this requires
music, of course, and what we get here is above average. “Way Back
Into Love”, the song Sophie and Alex write, is no classic, but it's not
bad. I loved “Don't Write Me Off”, which plays a big part in the
finale, as well as PoP's 80's hits “Meaningless Kiss” and “Pop Goes My
Heart” (the music video for which is priceless). And Cora's hit “Entering
Bootytown” makes a perfect introduction to musical values the movie doesn't
care for without seeming like something that wouldn't actually sell.
Oscar voters are no longer interested in pop-style songs in the Original
Song category, but they could do worse than to look here when casting next
year's ballots.
One complaint: as I
mentioned, Lawrence's previous writing/directing outing was the botched
Grant/Sandra Bullock vehicle Two Weeks Notice, and his biggest hit
as a writer alone was the wonderful Bullock hit Miss Congeniality.
All three movies end with montages of information about the characters'
futures (this time cutely presented in “Pop-Up Video” format). While
the ones at the end of Music and Lyrics are better than average,
can I just mention that I HATE THAT!
Thanks for letting me get
that off my chest.
Otherwise, Music and Lyrics
is an above-average entry in a troubled genre. I laughed, I cried.
If only it worked this well more often. |
