Music and Lyrics - together they make a wonderful romantic comedy!
Written: Feb 11 '07
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Bang For The Buck |
 |
|
|
Pros: Fantastic cast, great dialogue, very funny, sweet plot...
Cons: ... slightly awkward pacing near the end...
The Bottom Line: If you like romantic comedies, you'll really love Music and Lyrics.
|
|
|
| captaind's Full Review: Music and Lyrics |
Music and Lyrics stars Hugh Grant as Alex Fletcher, former member of eighties pop group “Pop”. The opening sequence of the movie is a music video of the group’s most famous song, and is funny enough to be pretty much worth the price of admission on its own. Co-singer Colin (Scott Porter, who doesn’t play feature in the rest of the movie but is superb in the opening) is the George Michael to Grant’s Andrew Ridgeley – he goes solo and is a huge international star, while Alex earns a living of low-key nostalgia gigs. His loyal manager Chris Riley (Brad Garrett) sticks with him and eventually manages to get him the chance to work with teen sensation Cora Corman (”bigger than Britney and Christina put together!”) – the catch is that he has to compose a new song in a very tight timeframe, and he’s a useless lyricist. He tries working with someone Chris sends him – something of a psychopath by nature it turns out – but then into his life comes a new plant girl. That is to say… someone who comes to look after his plants (”having plants in the flat makes women feel more comfortable”). Her name is Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore), and she just happens to have a way with words… but she’s not keen on writing lyrics because of something in her mysterious past…
I had been looking forward to seeing Music and Lyrics from the moment I saw the trailer, and I can honestly say that I enjoyed every second of it. Hugh Grant is perhaps the best actor around in terms of romantic comedies (at least going on the number of them that he’s been in that I’ve really enjoyed – About a Boy, Notting Hill, Two Weeks’ Notice). He’s perhaps not a particularly versatile actor, but he does what he does extremely well. In this particular instance of course he does what he does in addition to dancing eighties style (and singing – it sounds like his own voice, anyway) in very tight jeans. Ouch. Still, he seems to have a lot of fun in this movie and is certainly very funny. Like Two Weeks’ Notice, much of the humour comes from the excellent dialogue, which is refreshing to find in a modern film. There’s quite a spark between him and Barrymore, who also plays her character very well. She also has a lot of scenes where she’s amazingly cute, and few actress can do “cute” as well as Barrymore. I really enjoyed Brad Garrett’s performance as his long-suffering manager too. Kirsten Johnston (Third Rock from the Sun) as Rhonda, Sophie’s sister who nearly has an aneurysm at seeing her eighties pop idol Alex, is very funny as well. However the revelation of this film in terms of the cast is newcomer Hayley Bennett as Cora, who gives an utterly believable performance as a pop Princess / Prima Donna. She seems to be based more on Britney Spears than anyone else.
The soundtrack is fantastic, featuring mostly new songs in eighties or modern styles that sound completely authentic and are very catchy, as well as a few piano compositions for mood. It’s never really riotously funny but is a constant joy to watch, frequently amusing, and occasionally very funny. It is also a very sweet story (in addition to being a funny take on music stardom), with less conflict than you normally see in a romantic comedy. In fact when the conflict does come to the fore the film nearly stops working so well, but it’s saved by a wonderful end sequence.
Overall Music and Lyrics is a film you’ll really enjoy unless you simply can’t stand the sight of Hugh Grant, or possibly if you feel the need to see several peoples’ heads blown or cut off every minute to keep you interested in a film. It’s very funny, very sweet, and has a great soundtrack. In fact I’m going to put it in my top ten romcoms list – yet another Hugh Grant film in that list, but it deserves to be there. I’d even say it’s nearly as good as About A Boy, which considering how much I love that movie is really saying something!
Other Information
Runtime: 96 minutes (pretty much timed to perfection)
Rating: PG (UK) PG-13 (USA) for some sexual content (if you’ve seen almost any modern music video you’ll know what to expect)
Ironic Trivia
“Actor Hugh Grant has earmarked pop star George Michael to play him in a potential biopic of his turbulent life.”
In an interview Grant says that although his character was not based on any particular character, he did watch a lot of Wham! Videos for some moves and ideas as he knows nothing about music!
(The full interview is here: http://www.premiere.com/actors/3512/q-a-hugh-grant-and-drew-barrymore-on-music-and-lyrics.html)
Related Links
Hugh Grant also starred in the romantic comedies About a Boy and Two Weeks’ Notice, both of which are in my Top Ten Romantic Comedies
Drew Barrymore was also in Never Been Kissed and 50 First Dates. I really loved her in The Wedding Singer.
Brad Garrett has done a lot of voice acting, including Bloat in Finding Nemo and the Easter Island Head in Night at the Museum
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Feel-good Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Nothing
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.