Hugh Grant returns to form, otherwise run-of-the-mill rom-com

Rating: 7/10 (9 April 2007)

In the mid-90's, Hugh Grant was typecast as the nice guy with a knack for one-liners whose greatest fault was passivity. Not coincidentally, this was both the commercial and artistic peak of his career with films such as "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "Sense and Sensibility", "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain" and "Notting Hill". Then came the Divine Brown scandal, which tarnished his nice-guy image. Since then, he has been either had to do garbage like "Mickey Blue Eyes" and "American Dreamz" or settle for roles as misogynistic womanizing brats in such fare as the "Bridget Jones" movies and "Two Weeks Notice".
In "Music and Lyrics", Hugh Grant plays a nice guy with a knack for one-liners whose greatest fault is passivity. Not coincidentally, this is his best performance since "Notting Hill". Otherwise, however, this is just another romantic comedy starring Drew Barrymore set in New York.
The movie starts out with a dead-on parody of 1980's videos that features PoP, a New Romantic band purposely designed to only appeal to teenage girls (think Duran Duran meets Wham! meets a-ha meets ABC). Hugh Grant plays Alex Fletcher, who plays synth and shares lead vocals with Colin Thompson (Scott Porter). We cut to the present with Alex in a boardroom shocked to find out that "Battle of the '80's Has-Beens" wants him to box Debbie Gibson for the opportunity to sing on TV again.
He goes back home with his manager (Brad Garrett) and meets his new plant lady Sophie (Drew Barrymore in the same role she's always played since the end of the "Charlie's Angel" franchise). He is under no illusions about the significance of his teen-pop, but he can't make a living without it. Then, just when all hope seems lost, he gets an offer to write a song for shallow teen sensation Cora (Haley Bennett playing a cross between pre-motherhood Britney Spears and post-motherhood Madonna). But the problem is that before, all the lyrics were written by Colin, with whom he has not had contact in over 10 years. He tries hiring a professional lyricist (Greg Antoon), but the lyricist only wants to do gloom-and-doom stuff. While they are hashing it out, Sophie--watering plants in the background--improvises a rhyme that is much better than anything the lyricist can come up with.
And that sets up the rest of the movie, with the typical romantic comedy staples: long pans of the NYC skyline, the interfering older sister (Kristen Johnson), the jerk ex-boyfriend (Campbell Scott), the first sexual experience that they mistakenly think is a mistake, the near-breakup and the reconciliation to great public applause (I'm embarrassed to have to put a spoiler warning for that last one).
A mention must be made at this point about the music: It is uniformly awful, but then so is 1980's New Romantic music (with the notable exception of U2) and 21st Century teen-girl pop (with the notable exception of Beyonce Knowles). Although Grant and Barrymore are listed as the performers of their songs, the closing credits list Martin Fry (former ABC lead singer) under "special vocals". There is no female "special vocalist" credited, from what I have heard of Barrymore's attempts at singing on "SNL", I imagine she had one too. Say what you will about Stephen and the Colberts ("The Colbert Report"), that really is Stephen Colbert singing, and that tuneless croak was a staple of many a New Romantic singer trying to ape David Bowie.
Speaking of "The Daily Show", I think it is a shame that Aasif Mandvi is stuck playing a middle-eastern stereotype when he devotes his all-too-limited time on "The Daily Show" to exploding middle-eastern stereotypes.
If you are a fan of Hugh Grant, you will thank director/screenwriter Marc Lawrence for giving him a much better role than their previous collaboration in "Two Weeks Notice". This movie is very much Grant's and he makes the most of it. And that is what saves "Music and Lyrics" from the romantic comedy blahs. 7 out of 10.