Unfunny, cringeworthy

Rating: 2/10 (10 February 2007)

I got slightly tricked into seeing this film, due to a couple of OK reviews. Within about 5 minutes (after the only OK bit, the opening video clip from Hugh Grant's character's '80s band) the mistake was clear - a painfully unfunny script, a cheesy set-up which stretched credibility well beyond breaking point, awkward performances...
Hugh and Drew are forced into a scenario where they are writing a pop song for a mock- Britney character. The second quarter of the film covers the process of writing this 'masterpiece', scenes which seem to be trying to be both hysterically funny and an artistic revelation as this apparently wonderful song emerges.
Amazingly, the only way from here was down, and throughout you feel yourself heading towards a truly painful finale, which it is no spoiler to reveal arrived even more corny and more painful than imagined.
There is a character throughout the film - a young lyricist which Hugh's character is initially paired with, meant to symbolise the "serious" writer - a figure of fun. Towards the end, upon hearing the song that Hugh and Drew wrote together, he mimes blowing his brains out at Madison Square Gardens. Watching this movie, I thought "I'm with that guy".