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Music and Lyrics (2007) Starring: Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore by Richard Leigh 
Having heard good things about 'Music and Lyrics' I was really quite looking forward to sitting down and watching it on an evening. I got the popcorn on the ready, set the DVD to play and waited for the credits to roll. As soon as the film began however I knew that I'd wasted my hard earned cash and in paying £4.99 to buy this from Play.com I'd been completely ripped off. I must admit that the genre of romantic comedy isn't exactly my favourite in the world, and Hugh Grant is an incredibly weak man that unsurprisingly plays exactly that in every film that he stars. Whilst Hugh Grant does come across as an incredibly weak person, I must admit that I do quite enjoy some of his films such as 'About A Boy', 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' and to a lesser extent 'Bridget Jones Diary' (although it is entirely over rated).
So what's so bad about 'Music and Lyrics'? Well, the script for a start. Many of the jokes here just fail to make me laugh and instead all I can muster is a cringe. I shall give you one such example of the poor script of this film and that comes in the Hugh Grant line of 'Nobody grows up in Florida... unless you're an orange'. Seriously though, why would anyone think that was at all funny; the sad thing is though that is probably one of the better jokes of the film. For me the film fails on every level and never did it impress me during it's 100 minute duration. Although I knew from the offset that I was not going to appreciate this film, I decided to give it a go and watch it through to the end as I paid good money to see this, good money that I did not want to see go to waste. As a general overview of the plot, Hugh Grant here plays the role of 'Alex Fletcher' who was a singer in the 80's pop band 'POP!'. He and his friend Colin Thompson were the main vocalists of the band, but sadly his friend left and started a successful solo career meaning that Alex Fletcher was somewhat 'left in the loop' so to speak. Alex Fletcher released a solo album himself, but it turned out to be a complete flop and he states that the album sold only around 50 000 copies of which most of those he jokes were bought by his own mother. As the film unfolds he is given the opportunity to musically impress the young singer Cora Corman who is supposedly bigger than Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera put together. All he must do is write a song that they can perform as a duet, and so enters Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore) as his lyricist. Alex Fletcher will provide the music, Sophie Fisher will provide the lyrics and so the film begins as the pair join together in their quest to write a suitable duet which shall impress teen idol Cora. The film is extremely self aware in it's cheesiness, it ridicules the awful pop bands of the 80's with the made up band 'POP!' and also the highly sexed pop industry of today with the portrayal of character Cora Corman. In theory it could have been greatly amusing and yet the film just doesn't work on any level for me and I was in fact greatly disappointed with what 'Music and Lyrics' presented me with. I can appreciate a good romantic comedy when I see one, but this is no great of the genre and is in fact hugely lacklustre and painful to sit through for a whole 100 minutes. As the film played I found myself looking across time and time again to see how much time had elapsed and how much more of this I would have to put myself through before I could at last happily retreat from the sofa and return to getting on with the rest of my life. I could so easily have switched it off and yet once I begin watching a film I can't stand not to see it through and if I do indeed turn it off then all that happens is that I'm left wondering 'What if the film was just about to get going, I may be missing a classic'. More often than not my first thoughts are correct in that the film turns out to be the pile of rubbish I thought it was, however there is the odd occasion when the director somehow manages to turn it all around and actually emerge triumphant. 'Music and Lyrics' was not to be one of these rare exceptions and was indeed the poor film I had been expecting from the offset. In terms of performances then this film wasn't all bad news. Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore don't exactly make for the most powerful of leading roles, but aside from them there was one person here at least that impressed. Kristen Johnston plays the part of Drew Barrymore's sister 'Rhonda' here and her performance in this film I feel is excellent. Her character was a fan of the 80's pop group 'POP!' and 'Alex Fletcher' was one of her teen idols who she therefore perceives to be some sort of demigod. Her performance is lively and energetic, she stands out within this film of standard and mundane acting and was a breath of fresh air for me when viewing 'Music and Lyrics'. I was a great fan of hers when she appeared in the American show '3rd Rock From the Sun', she has highly distinguishable and instantly recognisable features and as soon as I saw her present in this film I was extremely pleased. It's not everyday you see her appearing within films, but she certainly impressed when she does. I have to be honest in proclaiming that before 'Music and Lyrics' I was not aware of the director Marc Lawrence, and having seen this film I can't say I'd be particularly enthusiastic about viewing any of his films ever again. 'Music and Lyrics' is poor, it does nothing for me as a film and very rarely did I find myself laughing as I watched. There were times when I found myself laughing in disbelief of how bad this film truly is, but that's clearly not reason enough to view any of Marc Lawrence work again in the future. In no way is this a film that I would ever recommend to anyone, it progresses poorly and although clearly tongue in cheek at times I just didn't find myself at all impressed with what I was watching here. The film pokes fun and is greatly aware of how cheesy a romantic comedy it is, but nothing about 'Music and Lyrics' made me want to watch on in any way whatsoever and the only way I managed to continue watching this film was through sheer willpower and determination. It's one of those films where you see the ending coming from a mile-off, and whilst this isn't always a bad thing and sometimes it does in fact work, I like to use my brain a little when watching films and 'Music and Lyrics' requires no brainpower whatsoever. On the back of the DVD box is a quote from 'NOW' which reads 'Well Wham bam thank you Duran Duran, here's a big chucklefest' and if there's anything more detestable than the film itself then it has to be this moronic piece of horrible journalism. Whoever wrote that horrible sentence deserves a slap, as does 'Music and Lyrics' writer and director Marc Lawrence for unleashing this boring beast of a film upon the world.  Rating: 1 out of 5 Details about the film: |
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