Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Music and Lyrics...and more

Music and Lyrics - Marc Lawrence - 2007 - 6/10

Summary:

Hugh Grant is Alex Fletcher, an 80's has been from the pop group Pop! who's career went nowhere when the lead singer dumped him and the rest of the band, taking Alex's three singles. Mired in the past and living on cheesy gigs at reunions, hotels, fairs and anything Fletcher's fanatic female followers will follow. Finally, Fletcher gets a lifeline when his manager (Brad Garrett) stumbles onto Cora Corman (Haley Bennett), the new pop sensation who wants Fletcher to write the last song for her album, but she needs it in mere days. Unfortunately, Fletcher's strong belief in melody and his diminished confidence after his miserable solo album has given him lyrics writing block. Coincidentally, one of those Fletcher fanatics is Rhonda Fisher (Kristen Johnson) who's sister Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore) has begun to water Fletcher's plants in his Manhattan apartment. On one of her days when she goes in to work, when Fletcher is working, Sophie displays some suprisingly good talent as a lyricist. Fletcher becomes obsessed with having her write his lyrics and does whatever it takes to build up her confidence and keep her in her genius mood. When Fletcher and Sophie begin to start sharing the feelings they're writing about, their complicated personalities begin to clash and suprise, you have a romantic comedy.

Critique:

I actually thought this was a pretty original movie that used a lot of devices that haven't been used before. You have a song writer, and a tortured novelist, and you have some other good things going on. The movie is pretty funny, especially Hugh Grant who plays a great Fletcher. What immediately comes to mind is to contrast Bill Nighy's eighties has been from Love Actually to Fletcher here. They are very similar, but Fletcher has significantly more screen time, and Grant uses that to deliver some pretty good lines. The movie also does a hell of a lot in a short amount of time - cramming a lot of backstory and development into fifty minutes before the romantic comedy part of the movie begins to come into play. This kind of lets the movie be funny - with quality jokes you don't usually get to see in romantic comedies. Barrymore isnt too bad here either, actually showing that she can look pretty attractive AND be funny. Her quirky personality and weird mannerisms are hysterical and finally prove to me that Barrymore can act.

Verdict:

All in all, a pretty solid romantic comedy.

If you liked this movie, see...
...About a Boy
...You've Got Mail
...Love Actually

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