Knight at the Movies Archives
A lopsided lollipop of a movie, sticky and sweet is a great Valentine's Day flick and a cautionary tale about the pre-teen years
punishes when it insists on a heavy dose of "life lessons"
Having had an 80s pop synth band it’s no surprise that I would be more than a touch impartial to the set up for the romantic comedy
Music and Lyrics.  But I suspect that those who didn’t will still be able to appreciate the spot on music parodies and personalities
sprinkled throughout this consistently humorous and surprisingly sweet film.  With Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore at the helm, each
with a long history of romantic comedies on their resume, this could have been yet another long slog through predictable territory.  
And to be sure both ratchet up their by now stereotypical personality traits.  He’s not just droll – he’s droll incarnate and she’s not
just daffy – she’s daffy times ten.  But somehow the teaming of cynic and sweet does the trick and Music and Lyrics is a very funny,
likeable movie.

In the film, Hugh Grant plays Alex Fletcher, the lesser known half of Pop! one of those 80s duos like Wham! in which one half went
on to huge superstardom (George Michael) while the other (Andrew Ridgeley) disappeared into oblivion.  The movie opens in
hilarious fashion with the video for the group’s first big hit, “Pop Goes My Heart,” a spot on recreation of one of those cheesy early
80s videos that MTV was crammed full of 24-7 in its heyday.

In the following moments we learn that though Grant’s character Alex Fletcher’s career has come down to playing gigs at Knott’s Berry
Farm and state fairs in which he still wears his signature tight pants, he’s moderately happy.  But the gigs are drying up as his
manager Chris Riley (Brad Garrett) keeps telling him and it’s not until Alex is offered a part on “Battle of the 80s Has Beens,” a
reality show in which he will need to wrestle his way back to the concert stage (other contenders are Flock of Seagulls, Debbie Gibson
and Tiffany) that he wakes up to his declining career circumstances.  There is one other big opportunity waiting in the wings.  Cora
Corman (Haley Bennett), a Christina-Britney-Lindsay-Hilary mega pop star idolizes Pop! and is offering Alex a chance to write her a
song and duet with her on the single.

Enter ditzy Sophie Fisher (Barrymore) at this exact moment in perhaps one of the most icky instances of “meeting cute” ever
engineered in a rom com: she’s the temporary plant caretaker for the wilted foliage in Alex’s high rise apartment.  As she enters the
apartment Alex is mulling over what to do – he always wrote just the music while the other half of Pop!, now an out of reach
superstar, wrote the lyrics.  Naturally Sophie, who works for a weight loss company run by her sister (Kristen Johnston, hilarious as
Alex Fisher’s biggest fan) and has never written a lyric, will end up showing a knack for the job.

The movie thereafter bumps along offering more wicked parodies of music biz personalities as this newly united Rodgers and Hart
gets to work on their song.  When the inevitable personality crisis comes, refreshingly, it’s actually over a matter of artistic – rather
than romantic – principle.

Grant and Barrymore both sing a bit and the song they write together has a nice blend of 80s and “today’s sound” (it’s a bit like
Human League meets Christina Aguilera) and with this and the other expert song satires, the soundtrack for the movie is going to
be a lot of fun.

Marc Lawrence who has written a batch of romantic comedies for Sandra Bullock (including
Two Weeks Notice in which she co-starred
with Grant) is lucky to have the 80s parodies and music biz characters to work into the script and to have these two strong
personalities in the leads.  Though both, as noted, trade on their stock character, it’s something that fans of both stars are really
looking for anyway.  This is the sweet but principled Drew Barrymore of Ever After and the wry, sexy and nonplussed Hugh Grant
(sans shirt in the love scene FYI) of pretty much all his romantic comedy movies.  
Music and Lyrics is a tad lopsided and a tad fuzzy
at the edges but it’s a pleasing Valentine’s Day gift to audiences coupled or on their own nevertheless.

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Disney and Walden Media, apparently anxious after the delay in getting their joint production of
Prince Caspian, the second in their
Chronicles of Narnia trilogy into theatres, now offer another movie with elements of fantasy and religion (and yes, there are many who
will insist they are one and the same),
Bridge to Terabithia.  Though not nearly as large scaled as the Narnia films will be, this is
a nice interlude that relies on imagination over special effects while we wait (until 2008 as it turns out).

Junior high was the absolute worst time in my life (and in the lives of many of Our People I would imagine).  If ever there was a time
NOT to be different, stand out, or God forbid, have imagination that would be it.  But Leslie (Anna Sophia Robb who played the lead
in
Because of Winn Dixie) has it with a capital “I” and soon after moving to her new school and enduring the taunts of her new
classmates, she hooks up with her neighbor down the road, the sullen Jesse (Josh Hutcherson), who has experienced his own share
of junior high school torture.

Soon the duo are best friends, exploring the deep woods near their homes, patching up a long forgotten treehouse, and using their
imaginations to create a mythical kingdom dubbed Terabithia in which their real life enemies become elevated to fantasy versions
that they must conquer.  The music score by Aaron Zigman helps elevate the magical playtime of the two friends.  Then the film
takes a tragic turn at the three quarter mark and questions of God and faith in the face of loss and grief take center stage and the
audience is gently but firmly guided into a Sunday school lesson and the rest of the picture felt like being in detention for me.  
Zooey Deschanel, in a supporting part, plays a music teacher adding a dash of hip to the movie’s quotient.
Light and Dark:
Music and Lyrics-Bridge to Terabithia
Expanded Edition of 2-14-07 Windy City Times Knight at the Movies Column
By Richard Knight, Jr.