Music and Lyrics

I really enjoy going on dates with my wife. After nearly seven years of marriage and three kids, we need to take opportunities the present themselves (in the form of grandparents arriving on the doorstep) to get out on our own and remember the fact that we actually are husband and wife before father and mother. So, we took the restaurant gift certificate that was hard-won in a Christmas gift exchange game and the movie tickets that were a prize for a Super Bowl party and went out on our own. We had been planning on seeing Pursuit of Happiness because I really wanted to see Will Smith work a Rubik's cube, but since it had already been out for quite a while, it left the theater for which we won the tickets the day were were going to watch a movie. C'est la vie. The decision was made to go see the romantic comedy Music and Lyrics. I'm the type of person that really enjoys watching movies of nearly any genre. I'm not big on pure romantic films, but I enjoy a good love story woven into the plot. I'm not big on musicals, but I enjoy a good dance fight as much as the next guy. As far as comedies, I'm pretty much always in the mood for a good laugh. So, I was fine with seeing Music and Lyrics, and here's my review.

Music and Lyrics stars Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant along with his infamous world's smallest nipples. That's the best line in this piece. I'm sorry. Grant plays a washed-up '80s pop music star who has been getting by in life on his former fame by playing such highly-prestigious venues such as Knotts Berry Farm and the Illinois State Fair while his former writing partner, who handled the lyrics while Grant did the music, went on to sell millions of albums, make movies and be knighted by the queen. Really. It's like the an '80s version of the Beatles if, instead of dying, John Lennon went on to be a complete has-been and Paul McCartney had become Tom Hanks along with being, well, Paul McCartney. Or should that be Sir Paul McCartney?

Barrymore is a flighty young lady with some skeletons in the closet and a penchant for killing house plants. She does pretty well with the plastic ones, however. Grant is frantically trying to come up with a song for a Christina Aguilera-like pop princess to revive his career. Or, at least, make a couple of quick bucks out of the deal. Since he only works with the music part of things, he needs a lyricist. Enter Drew Barrymore's character. She's done some writing in the past (poetry and the like, no music), but a bad experience has really shaken her confidence. In short: They need each other. Everybody now. Awwww.

Before I mention any other opinions on the movie, let me say this: I liked it. It was a cute movie with many good moments and good laughs. The casting was fantastic from top to bottom. Yes, the plot was predictable, but what romantic comedy has a plot that isn't predictable? I don't think it's a gigantic spoiler to say that they end up falling in love. That's the way these movies work. Now for the problems. Any time that you can leave a movie and talk about things you noticed in the editing, it's probably not the best job of editing ever. There were quite a few times in which the shot would switch from Barrymore to Grant and back again that I would notice what was being said didn't match up with how the face was moving. Once or twice having that happen is forgivable, but multiple times in the same scene is, quite frankly, sloppy. At the same time, there were two very noticeable long takes in which the actors are going back and forth, going through their scene with the director never cutting. That's either showing a lot of faith in your actors, or a lack of faith in your editors. At this point, I'm willing to say that it was probably a combination of the two. Barrymore is passably-likable in her role and puts in a generally-solid performance. No Oscar nominations will come out of this movie for her, but she did a good job. Hugh Grant plays the Hugh Grant character to perfection. He rarely goes beyond that role of the likable, witty Englishman (see also, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually, et. al.), but there's nothing wrong with knowing what you do well and sticking with it. He's never going to be mentioned in the same breath as DeNiro, Hanks and Farrel (sorry, had to throw that one in there), but he's a good actor. Even if his nipples are very distracting. The movie could very easily have been rated PG if they would have (A) toned down on the pop princess's dancing a bit and (B) increased the fabric in her wardrobe slightly. At one point, she was wearing what I can only describe as a "full-body thong." There was no noticeable swearing, no nudity and only two instances of intimacy. One when they start kissing, fall to the floor and then we cut to the next morning and the other with their legs sticking out from under the piano.

All things considered, it was a good movie that made me laugh, and Anne liked it too. It's a great movie to which you can take a date.

I give it a three out of five very tiny nipples.