Music and Lyrics (2007) Film Review

Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) was a huge pop star in the eighties, but is now just doing some crappy gigs reliving his best times. His manager Chris (Brad Garrett) lands him the deal to write a song for pop star Cora Corman (Haley Bennett), but he can’t write lyrics. Then Sophie (Drew Barrymore) turns up to water the plants in his house (because apparently that’s a job) and she turns out to be fabulous at lyrics and they start working together. And start falling for each other. But she has baggage from her past and things get tricky.

It’s a good romantic comedy. I love both the leads, but felt that Hugh Grant was just playing a crapper version of his About a Boy character and that didn’t work for me. Far too many gags that were clearly gags and not enough heart for my liking. It’s not my top romantic comedy, but it is far from the worst.

 

He’s Just Not That Into You (2009) Film Review

Surely it is hardly surprising that a film based on a self-help book is not that great. That much didn’t surprise me. I didn’t really expect it to be quite as misogynistic as it was. The women are awful to each other. The men are awful to the women. The women are awful to the men. Actually, maybe it’s not misogyny as such. Maybe it is just a bunch of horrible, horrible people.

Gigi (Ginnie Goodwin) is single and desperate, but keeps getting let down by men. She ends up adopting bartender Alex (Justin Long) as her go-to man for revealing the secrets of men – what they really mean when they say and do various things. Meantime, her colleague Beth (Jennifer Aniston) breaks up with her long-term partner Neil (Ben Affleck) because he will not marry her. Then wannabe singer Anna (Scarlett Johansson) is pursuing married man Ben (Bradley Cooper) at the advice of her best friend, Mary (Drew Barrymoore).

Some of the advice is good. But the film is not.