Hey folks, Harry here with Millie and a look at DOWN WITH LOVE. Specifically, this is the film that will give us a style, look, visual creative guide to the director of FANTASTIC FOUR. Without getting any more into it, I want to just putcha in the hands of Millie, beware of some spoilers, like you didn't figure the movie out from the trailers, but who cares... Is it fun? The trailers looked delicious, joyous and wonderful. Here ya go...
Howdy!
Last Thursday I got the chance to see "Down With Love." I haven't been able to write this sooner, because I've been stuck in what some may know as, "Mid-term Hell." Thankfully, I now have some time to kill, so I thought I might shoot you a line.
I've reviewed a few films for you in the past, most recently "The Core," "Timeline," "Identity," and "Tears of the Sun" (Though the latter was never posted). Looking back on them, I suppose to they seem like pretty positive reviews. In truth, however, most of the films were, in my mind, pretty near mediocre. I mean, they were good-ish, or bad-ish, but nothing really memorable. As my friend aptly said, "When are they going to start handing out free tickets to _real_ movies?"
Well, at last, that time has come. At least for me. For I have found a movie that at last warms the cockles of my girlish heart. I have found a movie that breaks through my cynical, end-predicting exterior to the uncaring, giggling, gooey piece inside. I have found "Down With Love." Now, is this movie perfect? No way. Was it the cream of my guy-friends crop? Not really. Was it still awesome enough to make me not really care about the rest of that? Yes. Am I getting giddy just writing about it, even one week after I last saw it? You betcha! Let me elaborate.
"Down With Love" is quite obviously based (looking beyond the very sixties decor, many will notice this movie borrows key plot elements from at least three Doris Day films) on those cheesy 1960s romances like Pajama Game, where mistaken adultery and sexual hijinks are the norm. Renee Zellweger plays the sexually liberated Barbara Novack, whose new book, "Down With Love," is throwing Betty Crocker households everywhere into a tizzy as women realize that love is just an illusion keeping them chained to domestic life and take the workplace by storm. Ewan McGregor (*sigh*) is Catcher Block, the journalist who determines to write an expose on Barbara by making her eschew her own teachings and fall in love--with him, of course. As mentioned previously, hijinks ensue, and anyone who's seen the trailer knows what they're getting into.
Now, after THAT unusually long intro:
The Bad:
- Can we talk about too-too? Someone recently asked me what I meant by this expression, and this movie shamelessly embodies it. Too-too much: Sexual innuendo, purposefully bad special effects, cheesy sixties' instrumental music, and too much...cheesiness. I mean, so much cheesiness it will be coming out of your ears. It didn't bug me that much in the long run, but I can see it getting on the nerves of a lot of people (read: anyone drug along by a girlfriend).
- The sexual innuendo. I know I mentioned this already, but it bears repeating. At first, the innuendo was unexpected and funny. Some of the really clever stuff remained funny. However, the writer(s) took any cheap innuendo shot they could get, and it got old pretty fast. It lent an un-fitting Austin Powers-like air to the entire movie that cheapened things a bit too much.
The Mediocre:
- The love. Have you ever noticed how despite the name of the genre (romantic comedy) the audience never really sees the couple actually falling in love? I mean, here you see them fighting, you see them lying, and tricking, and kissing and yelling, but you never see that moment when they cross the line from hatred to love. It's just sort of, "Look, we had a montage of date scenes, and one shot apiece of them staring wistfully at one another. Now they're in love!" It sort of adds to an emotional hollowness that's a big problem in movies today.
- The ending-credits song. Ok, I think we all know it was established in Moulin Rouge that Ewan has a voice that can melt butter, and in Chicago that Renee has a sweet sound of her own. However, does that mean they merit their own silly faux-swing duet track? Um, no.
The Good:
- Ewan McGregor. I mean, come on, Ewan McGregor. Do I really need to say more? Well, maybe. Ewan McGregor. (insert cheesy girl giggle here).
- Renee Zellweger, being her typical cute, bunny-like self. She brings to this part, however, a bit of inner-strength and vim that hasn't been present in her previous roles (like that whiney whimpering Bridgett Jones, and Doormat Dorothy in "Jerry Maguire").
- The clothing. The costume designer did a pretty good job making a hideous decade second only to the double-whammies of the seventies and eighties (clothing-wise, at least) look almost good. Hurrah! Not that that didn't bar the ocassional grotesque coat or dress, but it did fairly well.
- The humor. Overdose of innuendo aside, I was laughing pretty steadily throughout this movie, harder than I've laughed at any other movie in the past two years, I'd wager. And I'm a hard person to amuse.
- The ending. I really didn't like those 1960s romances. They were cute and silly and sometimes fun, but they were boring. And above all, the endings stunk and often left me wishing for something more, or planning out what I would have done could I have changed the script. At first, I was expecting this movie to have just the same stinky sort of ending. Instead, it was an awesome twist that was just--perfect. (Although some in the audience were heard to remark it went on to long.)
- The chemistry. Not just between Ewan and Renee, though that is pretty great, but between the entire cast in general. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there was something between them and about them that gave the movie a sense of soul it wouldn't have had with anybody else. It was something that, after about ten minutes of me thinking, "This is stupid. Like a sugar bomb version of 'Catch Me If You Can.'" began to melt my heart.
In summary: This was an awesome movie. I loved it. It seemed to have something that most movies today lack: A soul. To be honest, guys will probably not like this movie. My company chuckled occasionally, but were mostly bored. But I predict it will be a hit with us chicks. And in closing, if you noticed that I seem to be using words like "heart" and "soul" a lot, it's because I'm really trying to emphasize the fact that this movie appealed to me more of an emotional level than an intellectual level--so when ya'll tear me apart after seeing this movie and analyzing all of its flaws, you'll know I was too busy being happy to even notice.
Have a nice day!
- Millie Dilmount
P.S. I apologize for any spelling/grammar errors--I have no MS Word at the moment, so everything is being written in my e-mail program. I double checked, but something always manages to slip by...
