Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) must meet a song-writing deadline with the help of quirky Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore). Romance ensues.

Rating: 6/10 (1 May 2007)

Some things in life are just meant to go together. Jack and Jill. Peanut butter and jelly. Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. Music and Lyrics, however, just wasn't meant to be.
Grant and Barrymore star in the recently released film "Music and Lyrics," written and directed by Marc Lawrence. Alex Fletcher (Grant), a washed-up 80's "has been" is given the task of writing a hit song for a young, racy, Shakira-esquire teen singing sensation named Cora Corman (Haley Bennett). With absolutely no song-writing success, he hires a seemingly depressed lyricist (Greg Antonsky, played by Jason Antoon) who insists on writing dark words for a song that will be titled "Way Back into Love." When Sophie Fisher (Barrymore) shows up to water Alex's plants, she starts spouting off rhymed couplets with which Alex is greatly impressed  and Greg is greatly disgusted. Alex tries to convince her to become his lyricist, but in the true manner of love story films, he is initially unsuccessful.
Sophie Fisher continues to accidentally tantalize Alex with her words, and eventually agrees to help him write his song for Cora. The two sit down in his apartment to try and come up with impressive lyrics, but Sophie irritatingly clicks her pen more than she writes. Another show of her immaturity as writer is the fact that she bails once the inevitable writer's block sets in. "But I've never written a song," she tells Alex. While we later learn the cause for Sophie's reluctance to put her writing out there, it still seems as if she could benefit from some self-esteem counseling. Her disinclination to finish the task at hand makes her seem whiny and unprofessional at best.
Overall, the movie is very formulaic. The only unpredictable bit came when the film opened with Alex's 1980's band, PoP!, leading one to question whether the entire movie would be set in that decade. Aside from that, neither the ending nor the entire plot of the movie were a surprise. As a whole, the movie was reminiscent of 1998's "The Wedding Singer" in which Barrymore stars opposite Adam Sandler. In both movies, a musician falls in love with her and writes a touching, if sappy, song in her honor. "50 First Dates," in which Barrymore and Sandler appeared in 2004, is another Barrymore precursor to "Music and Lyrics." The bohemian blonde is a role that Barrymore certainly has down by now, which is perhaps why she was able to fit the role of Sophie so well  from the styles she wore to the way she spoke to the chemistry with Alex.
Forced acting by Kristen Johnston (who plays Sophie's sister Rhonda) and Haley Bennett (Cora) did nothing to better the movie. Both actresses either lacked emotion in most of their lines, or were overly exuberant  such as when Rhonda meets Alex in person and acts like a 12-year-old on a sugar high, or when ditzy Cora insists that she must show Alex the roof  "it's upstairs!" she gleefully exclaims.
The film was carried by its witty one-liners  Alex: "I've given up, my face is in the butter!"  and clever dialogue between Alex and Sophie:
Alex: "Theoretically I could pick you up because I will be taking a cab." Sophie: "I could be standing outside at 9:40 in bright orange clothes, so you wouldn't miss me" Alex: "Oh good, you'll get some road work done while you wait, then."
Were it not for the chemistry between Grant and Barrymore, the film would have fallen flat. The concept of music and lyrics being together is explained in the movie in such a way that embodies that chemistry  that the melody is like a first impression, and the lyrics are like when you get to know a person. If that were true, the melody for this film would be trite and with few chords, and the lyrics would go something like: "this is not a film that I would pay money to see again, although it would be decent for a night full of rain" Even so, the movie would be sufficient for a girl's night out. Don't think about asking any males to see the film  Grant's hip shaking will have them crying all the way home.