A decent romantic comedy

Rating: 7/10 (25 January 2009)

Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) is the washed-up former member of a 1980s WHAM! like group called POP. Alex is well past his heyday and is reduced to reproducing his past glories at reunions and amusement parks. Out of the blue he is asked to write a song for a current pop star who is a fan of his past work. Serendiptiously, Alex, who does not write lyrics, finds a collaborator in Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore) who is a natural lyricist.
Most of this movie is fairly predictable. Alex and Sophie find romance as they work on their song and then face difficulty as Sophie objects to being asked to commercialize her work while Alex, who is very grateful for his second chance, takes the request as merely being about business and is fully prepared to bastardize his effort.
This movie is only pretty good, Grant and Barrymore share a good chemistry but the material is only average and proceeds in a manner that is totally predictable and done better in other romantic comedies. So, this movie gets a grade of B- and a moderate recommendation. Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore fans will like it but the average fan might not like the expense of renting it.