Just an Old Fashioned Love Song

Rating: 6/10 (15 April 2007)

Putting Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore together in a film seems odd. It's hard to see the potential spark that could ignite between these two and the movie "Music and Lyrics" (directed by Marc Lawrence, "Two Weeks Notice" and "Miss Congeniality") added nothing to change my mind.
Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) is an aging 80's musician living in the upscale New York area. His career has been reduced to mediocre shows at amusement parks and high school reunions. Needless to say this career path is barely satisfying. Fletcher gets a break when his agent Chris Riley (Brad Garrett, Everybody Loves Raymond,) tells him about a one time shot at writing a song for the new, young and hot pop sensation Cora Corman (newcomer Haley Bennett). The only problem is that Fletcher has never been good with writing lyrics and has a deadline.
Fletcher is in his apartment working on the song when Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore) shyly stumbles into his life. She is the substitute plant waterer who's been assigned to Fletcher's apartment. Her awkwardness, self-muttering and standoffishness leads Fletcher and Riley to believe she's just a little off.
While watering the plants throughout the living room, Fisher can't help but overhear Fletcher and his lyricist Greg Antonsky (Jason Antoon) arguing over the lyrics for the unwritten love song: "Way Back Into Love". Fisher starts creating her own lyrics while watering and Fletcher can't help but overhear her. He encourages her to share her ideas and is impressed with what she comes up with. Fletcher and Fisher end up working together and falling for each other while writing the song.
While trying to inspire words for the song, Fletcher and Fisher end up making small talk. Here's a snip from one of those conversations that got a belly shake out of me: Fletcher: The best time I've had in the last fifteen years was sitting at that piano with you.
Fisher: That's wonderfully sensitive... especially from a man who wears such tight pants.
Fletcher: It forces all the blood to my heart.
Fletcher and Fisher decide to ask the guy working the front desk in his apartment what he thought of the lyrics to their new song. Fletcher is in the middle of reciting a line when he has to stop for clarification:
Fletcher: (singing) Sleeping with a clown above my bedclown is not right.
Fisher: That's cloud, not clown. Why would you put a clown in your bed?
Fletcher: It would not be the first time. It's little lines like this that caught me off guard and kept me entertained for the duration of the movie.
The movie has a slow start that made me wish I could turn it off like a dull love song on the radio. I found myself becoming antsy and waiting for the predictable story line to pick up. Half and hour into the movie, the plot began to pickup I began to enjoy and chuckle at Fletcher's witty lines.
Drew Barrymore plays her typical role as the awkward girl who is unsure of herself. I was often reminded of her roles as Julia in "The Wedding Singer" and Lucy in "50 First Dates". It seems as though Drew is incapable of taking on more challenging roles.
Hugh Grant never seems to disappoint me with that boyish, British charm. Whether or not he's not playing a creep like he did in "Bridget Jones's Diary" his character still shines through and it makes him that much more likable.
The song itself, "Way Back Into Love", written by Adam Schlesinger, is very catchy. From first hearing the melody I was intrigued to hear the rest of the song. There are bits and pieces of it played throughout the movie, but the whole thing is finally played at the end. The melody is soft, sweet and soulful and made me want to listen to what it had to say. I found myself humming the tune on the way home from the theater. An instant classic. I also caught a few bloopers that any script supervisor should have caught. I was surprised at how they caught my attention. There is a particular café scene where the camera is looking at Barrymore head one and she has a cup in her hand. The second camera angle shows her back and the cup is mysteriously sitting on the table in front of her. Every time the camera angle changes, so does the position of the cup. Another scene at an amusement park also caught my eye. When Grant is standing backstage, Barrymore is holding an unopened bottle of water and is getting ready to hand it to him. The next angle shows him with the bottle open and in his hand. Oops.
The story line was a bit cliché and predictable. The awkward pair end up together despite real life and things are going really well. All of the sudden, someone's past leads up to a huge blow out and neither characters are talking to one another. Cue the sad music and scenes of the two of them moping around thinking about the other person. It's a cute movie to see on girls' night out or if you want to catch a romantic comedy with your sweetie. It's not a movie that will be winning any awards, but it will win a few smiles and maybe even a few hearts.