I love my Merrick Tuesdays - we do stupid things at department stores, spend too much money at Target, and eat lots of food. Oh, and we watch Gilmore Girls. Love those Gilmore Girls. Especially their wardrobe. Covet.
Lorelai and Rory took the night off that night, so we grabbed a quick dinner and headed to the theater to see the chickiest chick flick that we could find: Music and Lyrics.
The last chick flick we saw was The Holiday, a film that surprised me. I liked it. Don't get me wrong, I would never drag a man to see it (or any chick flick for that matter), but it wasn't what I expected. The fact that K-10 lived in the town where some scenes were filmed made it very exciting. Cameron Diaz's acting actually didn't drive me to drink and she didn't look like a deranged muppet (plus, her wardrobe was fab-u-lous!). Jack Black's antics were low key and enjoyable. Kate Winslet was fantastic - as she is in everything - and her side storylines were inspired.
Plus... Jude Law. Sigh.
Music and Lyrics, now.
Uh.
Hrrmmm.
Well, it satisfied every item on the click flick list:
-Boy and girl meet.
-Boy and girl hate each other.
-Something happens to bring boy and girl closer together.
-The sex happens.
-Boy screws up.
-Girl leaves.
-Boy wins girl back.
-Happily ever after.
AHHHHHHHH! It was so GD predictable! Not that I expected something different -- well, maybe I did. The Holiday threw me for a loop on several occasions, and that was nice. I appreciated those moments. So I guess that the main difference between the two is that one was 100% completely predictable and the other only ranked about 80% on the predictability scale.
Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) is an aging eighties pop star, once a member of the prominent band, Pop - a blatantly obvious mimic of Wham! Unfortunately, his was the Andrew Ridgeley role, and his singing partner followed the George Michael route. Alex now performs at county fairs and high school reunions, earning a decent living. His manager, Chris Riley (Brad Garrett, with a muted, but excellent performance) is soon ecstatic to announce that Cora Corman (Haley Bennett), a Britney/Christina mix, has chosen Alex to write her new hit song!
Enter Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore). She's filling in for a friend when she arrives to water Alex's plants. Somehow she is tapped to write the lyrics for Alex's new song. Oh, and she's got baggage. Of course.
There are strong performances by both leads, as well as by Brad Garrett, as mentioned. Kristen Johnston appears as Sophie's sister and has a few memorable scenes. (I know that Johnston is a beautiful, big-boned woman, but GOOD LORD does she make Barrymore look like a small hobbit child). Bennett, as Cora, delivers a hilarious performance as a young starlet with lofty aspirations: "I've got Shakira breathing down my NECK!" It's Bennett's first role, and she'll only improve.
The storyline is cute, but contrived. Alex and Sophie's big "fight" is completely predictable and the outcome was obvious from the beginning. I wouldn't advise spending big bucks at the theater, but it might be a Netflix option. It'll most likely be on dvd soon. I enjoyed it, but The Holiday left me expecting a little bit more.
But it was perfect for our chickiest chick flick night.
One of the best parts of the film were video flashbacks to Alex's days in Pop. Here's the song I've had in my head since seeing Music and Lyrics. Enjoy:
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