INNOCUOUS ESCAPISM: Hugh Grant (R) and friend
by ANNE MARIE
MARKO
In keeping with the ongoing affection for
all things ’80s— from soulless music to crass fashion— and conveniently
neglecting to note that said decade was largely a cultural wasteland,
director Marc Lawrence’s (Two Weeks Notice) latest will
delight those who’ve blocked out the fact that there was precious
little to laugh at or swoon over at the time.
Hugh Grant plays Alex Fletcher, the ex-lead singer and co-songwriter of
Pop, a fictional ’80s band equal parts Duran Duran and Wham! His heyday
long gone, he now makes a damn fine living (if his NYC apartment is
anything to go by) performing his hits on the amusement-park circuit
for nostalgic soccer moms and their passive, balding husbands. When
current teen pop phenom, Cora (newcomer Haley Bennett), invites Alex, a
musical hero of hers, to write and perform a duet, he sees this as his
life raft back to even more glorious financial shores.
He’s only got three days to come up with a winner, and composing the
music’s a cinch, but he can’t write a rhyme for shit. Enter Drew
Barrymore as Sophie Fisher, Grant’s bumbling, hypochondriac
plant-caretaker who just happens to have a gift for spinning lyrical
gold from thin air. Now all he has to do is convince the somewhat
damaged dame to collaborate with him on the song that will turn his
life and career around. Oh, and along the way they fall in love and she
teaches him a thing or two about artistic integrity.
Music and Lyrics is a by-thebook, predictable romantic
comedy. Hardly high art, nor even remotely clever, it essentially has
all the wit of an average Everybody Loves Raymond episode, be
that what it may. Hugh Grant is his usual enchanting self, although he
doesn’t have a whole lot to work with in the script, while Barrymore’s
bewildered Sophie as often as not comes across as borderline retarded
and not at all credible.
Nevertheless, there is an iota of chemistry between them, so, if one is
in the mood for some innocuous escapism, then yes, you could do worse
than shelling out for this formulaic fluff-fest. Perfect for those who
view Valentine’s Day as a legitimate holiday.
MUSIC AND LYRICS
OPENS THIS FRIDAY, FEB. 9
|
