Dir.
Marc Lawrence, 2007, US, 104 mins
Cast: Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore
Review by Carol Allen
The movie kicks off
with a wickedly accurate and very funny spoof of an '80s
boy band video, featuring a miraculously youthful looking
Grant gyrating and emoting – well,
like Hugh Grant might have done had he been in a boy band
20-odd years ago.
The film has set itself quite a challenge in trying to live
up to that, which it does with varying degrees of success.
Grant plays Alex, whose faded career is reduced to nostalgia
performances for his now ageing fans. He offers to take part
in tacky television shows, such as "Battle of the Has
Beens", which pits former pop stars against each other
in the boxing ring, for the chance to sing on the telly again.
However, things start to look up when
hot young pop star Cora (Haley Bennett), who looks about
12 and takes herself very seriously, asks him to write
a song for her. But she wants it “like tomorrow” and
although Alex has written plenty of music, lyrics are not
his thing. Then in another lucky turn he discovers that
Sophie (Barrymore), the somewhat flaky girl who looks after,
or rather kills his house plants, has a flair for words
and a potential Lennon and McCartney team for the 21st
century is born.
This lightweight romantic comedy has the virtue of an original
storyline and overall it's very entertaining, largely because
it has Grant in a role which was written for him by director
Lawrence, who worked with him before on Two Weeks Notice.
There is some good comic dialogue, which Grant delivers
with impeccable comic timing and his familiar, and appealing,
self-deprecating charm. For instance, referring to his
one solo album which is languishing in the knockdown section
of the local music store, he tells Sophie that "it
sold 50,000 copies, mostly to my mother”.
Barrymore is sweet enough as Sophie,
albeit a bit irritating at times with her very American
obsessions and complexes and the relationship between the
two actors works well in the first half, when they’re like a cool uncle and
his slightly mad niece, or indeed older brother and kid sister.
But there's no real sexual chemistry between them so when
they become sexually/romantically involved it's a bit uncomfortable.
The age difference between them isn't that huge – about
15 years which is the same as between Grant and real-life
girlfriend Jemima Khan so no big deal. But Barrymore looks
so much younger than her real age (more 20-something than
30-something) that it makes poor Hugh and indeed Cameron
Scott, who contributes a good cameo as her love rat ex-boyfriend,
both look a bit like a dirty old men. It might have been
better if Alex and Sophie had stayed just good chums and
he'd got off with her feisty big sister (Kirsty Johnston),
who is his biggest fan. But then of course it wouldn't be
a romantic comedy in the classic sense.
The songs are really catchy and good and Grant, who has
never before sang or danced in a movie, except as a parody,
has a pretty good go at both. Added to that he learned
to play the piano for the role as well. And he gets a bit
of fun out of the fact that '80s style hip-gyrating dance
moves when you're 40-something, can sometimes be a hazardous
business.
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