FEEL GOOD KINDA BAD

Rating: Null/10 (13 November 2003)

This movie is enjoyable but also tries way too hard to make sure the audience feels good. The music swells with timely lyrics at certain points to make sure you "GET IT" - it's like an annoying friend sitting next to you, jabbing you in the ribs to make sure you "get it". Feeling good, feeling teary, feeling bittersweet??? Huh?? Are you?? The film doesnt trust it's material so it throws in the whole kitchen sink - while their are wonderful scenes and performances, there are also parts of the film that feel so cloying, so manipulative, so sappy, you want to scream. Richard Curtis is a very funny writer - both on TV (Blackadder) and in film (Bridget Jones, 4 Weddings...)but as a first time director his work was rather flat and stale. Maybe that is why he felt the need for almost wall to wall music. Plus it does seem like he had all these scraps of paper in a drawer with dozens of ideas written down for scripts and he decided to throw ALL of them into ONE movie. SPOILERS########SPOILERS: I could have cared less about the best friend secretly in love with his buddy's wife and the storyline of the stand-ins (nude)was predictable and one-note and the goofy Brit going to America to get hot chicks was stupid and seemed to belong in another teen movie but there was passion and fire in Emma Thompson's story, Hugh Grant was quite funny and the little boy with the crush on the girl singer was fantastic. And even though I liked the work of Colin Firth and the cleaning woman - I mean, please, he is going to just MARRY her???? Not maybe go out on a few dates first - gauge the HUGE cultural differences they might have- let alone the language barrier. But, yes, you would have to be a corpse not to FEEL something as certain stories wrapped up but Curtis needs to not be so heavy-handed and pushy with the message. Yes, yes, we get it. Love - Good. Sheesh.