Not my cup of Earl Grey

Rating: 5/10 (13 January 2002)

This film is an exercise in excess. Visually, it's like a gourmet meal that just keeps coming and coming and coming, long after you're full to bursting and writhing in digestive agony. Zoom in to the window, zoom out from the window, zoom in again, zoom out again...So much red velvet and crepe you begin to pray for a touch of green. Most of the songs fit into the movie the way Rush Limbaugh fits in at an NSync concert. The principals can sing in a highly tutored, competent sort of way, but don't exactly bring Judy Garland or Gene Kelly to mind. Nothing about this movie really had any effect on me. I couldn't care less about the characters or their love story. It seemed to be trying to be "Shakespeare in Love", "Titanic", and a bit of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" to boot, without ever really achieving any of it. If you loved this film I'm very happy for you, but it felt more like 228 rather than 128 minutes to me.