I really loved Music and Lyrics
Written: Jul 13 '07 (Updated Jul 13 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great music, very funny
Cons: A bit formulaic
The Bottom Line: One of the best romantic comedies I've seen in a while.
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| phungus's Full Review: |
Music and Lyrics is a wonderful romantic comedy starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. If you grew up in the 80’s, you’ll definitely want to see this movie. It’s about an 80’s pop star (Grant) who enlists the help of a young woman (Barrymore) to write a new song to help him make a comeback. This movie was written and directed by Marc Lawrence, who previously did Two Weeks Notice.
If you were to make a flowchart of the events in this movie, you’ll see that it follows the same basic formula found in most romantic comedies. First you have two people who don’t really seem like they have much in common, then they meet under somewhat unique circumstances. Next, they find some kind of common ground and eventually fall for each other, or at least sleep together. There’s always the part where somebody gets mad at the other, and so on and so forth. You know the drill. Just plug in different characters and settings and you have the formula for most romantic comedies ranging from Pretty Woman to The Wedding Singer.
Even though this movie follows the romantic comedy formula, which is at least a functional and well-accepted formula, I thought it managed to squeeze in enough originality to make it worth seeing. The opening credits are displayed over a mock 80’s music video in which Hugh Grant’s character was the sidekick part of a duo featuring a much more talented and better looking guy. That guy went on to do movies and become big and famous, while Grant’s character spent the next 20 years being that ‘other guy’ who people recognize, but can’t name.
Grant’s character gets a much-needed boost when a young Britney-like pop princess asks him to write a song for them to perform together. It seems this young pop star is a huge fan of Grant’s work from the 80’s. The catch is she needs the song done in less than two weeks, and she’s made the offer to several other has-beens. This puts Grant in a tough position because he always wrote the melodies in the 80’s, and was never much of a lyricist. It isn’t until he meets Barrymore’s character that he’s able to use her natural writing ability to finish the song. He’s the music and she’s the lyrics, hence the name of the movie.
Barrymore meets Grant’s character by chance one day when she shows up at his apartment to water his plants. Grant had been paying someone else to do it and that person had to cancel at the last minute, so they got Barrymore to go instead. Her character is a bit neurotic and has some self-confidence issues, but the movie explains why and it makes sense. For their first several scenes together, it is strictly business between them, but of course you know what happens when two people spend that much time together talking and writing about love.
This movie features a rather incredible amount of original music, of which quite a lot is sung by Grant himself. Even Barrymore sings on one song. The DVD extras show how they got voice coaches for the actors, and I must say I was impressed. Grant previously did a little musical number in About a Boy, but it was intentionally awful. The original music and lyrics for this movie were written by Adam Schlesinger of the band Fountains of Wayne. He also did the music for That Thing You Do.
Besides the great on-screen chemistry between Grant and Barrymore, both of which have been in several successful romantic movies, the supporting cast is great. Brad Garrett of Everybody Loves Raymond has some great scenes as Grant’s manager who is trying to hold together his client’s withering career. Kristen Johnson, who was hilarious in Third Rock from the Sun, is great as Barrymore’s sister who has been completely infatuated with Grant since the 1980’s. Johnson easily steals all of her scenes.
As someone who grew up in the 80’s, I really appreciated the way the movie portrayed the period and how it tied it in with present day. The 80’s and all things retro are definitely in style right now, so the timing for this movie was perfect. I know most romantic comedies are all the same, but trust me when I tell you that Music and Lyrics really stands out from the rest.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
phungus
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Member: William Fulks
Location: Biloxi, MS
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My short story, When Dragons Sleep, now on Amazon - visit http://www.wfulks.com for more info.
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