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>> After the succes of Trainspotting and Shallow Grave, UK's cinematic fab four arrive in Hollywood to make an unapologetically American film by MATTHEW HAYS The Brits may find themselves all shook up this month when their film fab four--director Danny Boyle, writer John Hodge, producer Andrew Macdonald and actor Ewan McGregor--premiere their latest movie worldwide. A Life Less Ordinary has its British elements, certainly. But the team make no apologies that after their massive indie successes Shallow Grave and Trainspotting, they've set out to make a decidedly more American film.
Boyle et al's latest is the culmination of the final call the team made after the serious bidding war that followed the runaway success of Trainspotting. The film, which had a modest budget of a few million, grossed over $80 million worldwide. It triggered an international debate about the role of cinema in the rise of heroin chic and pushed its leads, particularly McGregor, to new heights of stardom. Basically, it became the independent cultural phenom of the year. Boyle sifted through numerous offers, even agreeing to take on the daunting latest in the Alien franchise, Alien Resurrection. Sigourney Weaver only agreed to return as Ripley because of Boyle's involvement. "But then I realized what I'd gotten myself into," says the laid-back director in a swank New York hotel. "I felt I couldn't do it, a film of that scale, with those kinds of demands and with so much preparation involved. I felt very guilty, so I wrote a long letter to Sigourney... I didn't hear anything back." After the dark, brooding universes of both Shallow Grave and Trainspotting, Boyle, Hodge, and Macdonald decided to toy with another genre. They zoned in on the romantic comedy, taking as cultural references the works of Preston Sturges and Billy Wilder. And while the rough edges and stylistic quirks are intact, Boyle cultists will be surprised by A Life Less Ordinary's downright uplifting sensibility. The film has two rather bungling angels in heaven, played by Hunter and Lindo, sent down to earth with a mission: to find two utterly mismatched people and make them fall in love. What's more, make the relationship stick. Their pawns are McGregor and Diaz: he's a loser with a go-nowhere factory job; she's the spoiled daughter of the wealthy factory-owning Ian Holm. After quitting his job in a rage, McGregor takes Diaz hostage. He soon bungles the whole plan, and Diaz steps in to help him finagle as much loot out of the old man as possible.
"Obviously, we want the film to be popular," Boyle concedes. "There's always been a feeling in Britain that popular entertainment should be despised, that American movies should be despised. Which is ridiculous, because we all grew up with them and loved them. The great thing about movies is that they're not exclusive, they're an art form for everybody. The thing about so many art forms is that they exclude people purposefully. Film doesn't." Boyle has worked hard at melding Brittania with Americana in A Life Less Ordinary. In addition to the cast, the crew is notably cross-cultural, and the soundtrack is a cool mix of sounds from both sides of the Atlantic, including Ash, Beck, Faithless, Sneaker Pimps, Elastica and even Diana Ross and the Supremes. "We've tried to use music as a main ingredient, so it becomes like an extra dimension. A lot of critics think we're just doing MTV, and to an extent we are. But there's nothing wrong with MTV. The young talent in Britain, if they've got anything to say, they make music. This is one of my pet generalist theories. But in America if you've got anything to say, you make movies. It's a different culture. We don't have a Super 8 culture in Britain."
McGregor and Diaz, for their part, have been executing a non-stop mutual love-in in various media to promote the film. "Cameron Diaz," McGregor responds when asked what makes A Life Less Ordinary work. "She doesn't come with any pretence or any ego to get in the way." "Ewan is just so natural," Diaz counters. "He just comes on the set and does it--it's always honest and believable and real." This really is a Hollywood film. Of the two, McGregor is definitely the most refreshingly real in an interview context. "Christ, I'm so hungover," he laughs, recommending "practice" as the best cure for a nasty morning-after-the-night-before. The actor is clearly also struggling to fend off copious questions about the Star Wars prequel he's just finished shooting, in which he played a young Obi-Wan Kenobi. "I have moments when the fame thing freaks me out completely," he says of his rising star. "But that's pretty rare. The bottom line is I'm terribly lucky to to be working on films I'm passionate about. If A Life Less Ordinary had conflicted with the Star Wars project, if I had to choose between the two, I would've made A Life Less Ordinary. It's more important to me to be a part of this team. It's been one of the most important aspects of my career. "I made one movie because it was the type of movie I thought I should be making, and it turned out horribly because my heart wasn't in it." (McGregor refuses to name the film, despite my best efforts). "I can't stress how much I love making films with them [Boyle, Hodge, Mcdonald]. They're the best filmmakers I've ever worked with." While appreciative of the team support, Boyle still seems more concerned about popularity at home and abroad. "What we're trying to do is to take a popular genre, like a thriller or a romance, and try to see how elastic it is. You try to stay true to yourself--but we do want it to be seen as an American film here and a British film at home. We want to have our cake and eat it too." Opens this Friday, Oct. 24. See film listings for showtimes
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The British invasion
And American it is. Backed by Fox (Rupert Murdoch's company, no less), the film has serious star power to back up McGregor, including Cameron Diaz, Holly Hunter, Stanley Tucci and Delroy Lindo. And the hype surrounding the film is strictly Murdochian. There's A Life Less Ordinary website, T-shirts, even a special colour of nail polish "inspired" by the movie.
"I think there will be a lot of people disappointed in Britain," says Boyle of what he expects will be the reaction to A Life Less Ordinary--especially since his previous film is credited with the renaissance in British national cinema that has been dubbed "Bleak Chic." "Some people will want to see Trainspotting 2. But we couldn't do that. We thought of making A Life Less Ordinary's motto 'Nobody dies.'" But for all the risk involved, Boyle insists he doesn't lose sleep over the stakes (alienating the cult, bombing in America). "When you're put on the spot, it seems like you should be concerned about it, but we're not. We wanted to make a romance before we forgot what it was like to fall in love for the first time. So you have to make it early in your career.
While Boyle is happy with the finished product, he admits the folks at Fox did have some "suggestions" about how the film should be shaped. "Fox said they [McGregor and Diaz] have to kiss every 10 minutes. They said they've got to make love. And we said, no, we want to have a dance sequence instead." Boyle says gratuitous sex wasn't really necessary in conveying the mismatched, but entirely requited, love of the two leads-- "Diaz and McGregor had an instant chemistry." McGregor had been cast since the beginning, but Diaz came after a long, long star search. "It sounds corny," recounts Boyle, "but I knew she was right from the first meeting. We were very lucky. With this film, we wanted to put ourselves in the background a bit and let the actors steal the show."