Music and Lyrics, written and directed by Marc Lawrence, opens today in the UK. At the press screening I was ill-disposed to this film - a romantic comedy with Hugh Grant playing a washed-up 1980s pop singer and also starring Drew Barrymore is not my first choice of film by a long way. But completely against my better judgment I enjoyed it. It's a lot of fun, nicely handled though not, unsurprisingly, very deep. I realised afterwards that I hadn't been irritated by Grant and not all that much by Barrymore.

The Cora Corman character (played by newcomer Haley Bennett) is wonderfully awful. She's a young, beautiful, sexy pop singer who fuses eastern spirituality with typically western pop sexual provocativeness. A very funny exaggeration of some strands of western postmodern spirituality.

Just saw this and am going to write the review tomorrow. I find little in the film of interest except for the use of religious symbolism in the final scenes.



What does anyone think of their using the Buddha and the dancing pseudo-monks? Is it a tip of the hat or disrespect?

Denny

It's neither imho ... just showing how superficially stars like that use such things and the like.

As for the movie ... there are quite a few funny parts, lines, etc ... overall however, I was not feeling ANYTHING chemistry-wise b/t Barrymore and Grant. The number of self-deprecating lines were overkill at times as well. The intro is VERY funny though. I wouldn't talk anyone out of seeing this movie, but I can't QUITE recommend it.

6.5/10

Really? I agree that she was played as being a shallow person, but are you saying that this attempt to find spirituality was just a stage/life prop?

Denny

Disrespect? Satire, probably, implying that Cora's use of Eastern music AND religion/religious icons is just trendiness, not sincere seeking. The clue, I think, is the revelation that Cora thinks [spoiler]"the Dalai Lama is an actual llama"[/spoiler].

Saw it with my husband, sister, and niece today. We laughed our heads off--because, as Tony points out, it is not very deep. But the opening alone is worth the price of admission, at least for a matinee.

I did not expect to like this movie, but Sarah had enjoyed seeing it in the theater and thought I might like it. So we watched it on DVD earlier this week. To my surprise, I found the movie quite enjoyable, attributable almost entirely to Hugh Grant, who I've never much cared for and who, in recent years, has done nothing more than annoy me. He's winning in this role. Barrymore was pretty much a stiff, although by the film's conclusion, I found myself rooting for the two of them as a couple. So I guess that qualifies as mildly effective overall, although it's Grant's performance that makes the film.