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MOVIE REVIEW
Down With Love
(2003)
Starring:
Renee Zellweger,
Ewan McGregor
Director:
Peyton Reed
Rating: PG-13
Studio:
20th Century Fox
Review
Posted: 5.16.03
Spoilers:
Minor/Major
By
Sara Michelle Fetters
"Down
With Love
Can’t Keep Its Groove On"
There is
nothing as heartbreaking as a movie loaded with potential
falling mysteriously flat, especially when said movie starts so
deliciously or has so much potential. That’s the very case with
Down With Love. A sex comedy molded out of the fabric of
the Doris Day and Rock Hudson photoplays of the 1950’s and 60’s,
this is a film that tries far too hard with far too little at
stake.
In 1963
Manhattan, the battle of the sexes is just beginning to brew.
Arriving to heat it up past boiling is young, brash New England
writer Barbara Novak (Renée Zellweger). Her new novel “Down With
Love” supposes that women should stop equating sex and love as
the same, to in fact treat the carnal act as a man does. In
three simple steps, and with an ample supply of chocolate, any
woman can start finding themselves on equal footing with the men
in their lives, up to and including ordering the opposite sex
al-a-carte much like they do with their women.
This doesn’t
sit well with the hunky Catcher Block (Ewan McGreggor). The
chief investigative reporter for the upscale men’s magazine
“Know,” Catcher is the man about town and ladies man that every
young boy aspires to be and every single woman fantasizes about
ensnaring. So, that in mind, he’s not too happy when Miss
Novak’s book starts breaking record sales and the women in his
life start frowning upon his macho posturing.
Determined to
prove that Barbara and all her “Down With Love” mania is just a
big pile of hooey, Catcher impersonates a down home NASA
astronaut named Zip Martin in single-minded quest to make the
beautiful literary darling fall in love with him. When she does,
he’ll have proven that her and the book are nothing more than
hogwash, and he can then return to his chauvinistic pattern of
lovin’em and leaven’em once more.
I shouldn’t
have to tell you what sort of nonsense ensues. In all honesty,
the basic principals of the romantic comedy haven’t changed much
over time, and seeing that Down With Love celebrates
those contrivances in all their cheesy glory don’t expect to be
too surprised with these two hormonal lotharios find themselves
falling for one another.
This isn’t a
film to watch for the story arc, though. No, the fun of Down
With Love is in watching its style. Director Peyton Reed (Bring
It On) has tried to make a movie in 2003 as if it was made
in 1963. From the Technicolor photography to the corny faux
cityscape to the proud announcement of being filmed in
CinemaScope, Down With Love revels in its campy 60’s
glee.
On that level,
it’s an astounding achievement. Reed and his crack team of
designers have gone all out in recreating the look and the feel
of Pillow Talk, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter and
many others. Marc Shamian’s (South Park: Bigger, Longer and
Uncut) winning score is all cheeky bounces and bongos, while
Andrew Law’s (Phone Booth) production design includes
everything from a mysteriously appearing bed to an entire
apartment that looks as if it was built inside a champagne
bubble. Even better are Daniel Orlandi’s (Phone Booth)
sublime costumes, Zellweger flamboyantly flouncing about in
outfits so wondrously constructed it must have been pure bliss
to show them off.
So why the
disappointment? Well, unlike that other recent attempt to
recreate a past filmmaking style, Todd Hayne’s superb Far
From Heaven, Reed forgets to have his cast not admit to the
shtick. Stars Zellweger, McGreggor, David Hyde Pierce
(television’s Frasier) and Sarah Paulson (What Women
Want) spend as much time winking back at the camera as they
do making googly-eyes at one another. They can’t stop letting
the audience know the whole thing is one large artificial joke,
as such, they couldn’t help but take me right out of it.
I also didn’t
like that Reed cast 60’s sex-comedy veteran Tony Randall (Let’s
Make Love) as the aging philanderer of a publishing house
and than proceeded to do nothing with him. It’s just another
wink at the audience that Down With Love isn’t so much a
movie as it is a game, a trick to see if a young 21st
century filmmaker can make something screwball in the same vein
as his 20th century contemporaries once did.
But these are
not the movie’s main problems, that honor belongs to Eve Ahlert
and Dennis Drake’s script. Veterans of the television show
The Nanny, they come up with a great premise and idea and
then proceed to drop to the lowest common denominator of the
television screenwriter’s barrel to bring it fruition. There
can’t be a split screen unless the two actors in it aren’t
appearing to felatiate each other, while the quick rat-a-tat-tat
patter of 60’s era dialogue is replaced by tired innuendoes not
even fit for a James Bond movie. It’s all too tiring to be funny
for very long, and despite the valiant efforts of the actors
Down With Love just never can gel because of it.
That’s too bad,
because for all the movie’s faults the actors really give it
their all. It’s obvious that both McGreggor and Zellweger love
the film and the characters they are playing. In fact, I could
definitely see them setting the screen afire together in a
different film, sharing a flaming chemistry that’s easy on eyes.
Granted, as sexy as these two are that’s probably a given but
I’ll still point it out all the same. But, after Moulin Rouge
and Chicago, these two must know in their hearts that
they can – have – done better and if anything should have known
to pass after reading the half-baked script.
But don’t tell
any of that to Hyde Pierce. Of all the actors in the film, he
does the least amount of fooling around and winking at the
camera. If anyone in Down With Love can be spotlighted
for playing it straight, he’s the one, and because of that the
film is far better off every time he’s on screen. It’s a winning
performance, and I was so happy to see him and young Paulson
almost dance away with the movie.
Don’t
misunderstand, there is much to like about this movie. From the
deliciously corny opening credits to the sexily winking song and
music video that ends the film, Down With Love has a
great deal going for it to keep one’s interest. If only the
script was better this would be one of the great pleasures of
the summer. Unfortunately, as it is onscreen now, it’s only a
great missed opportunity instead. What a shame.
Rating: 2.5 out of 4
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