Too fun to condemn

Rating: 5/10 (22 February 2007)

What if a comically washed-up 80's pop star and an aimless, flaky 30-something hooked up and tried to make something of the rest of their lives? I know, I had my doubts, too.
Somehow 'Music and Lyrics,' is just engaging enough a chick-flick to keep you conscious assuming you've brought a date.
In fairness, a couple scenes are downright inspired -- particularly the opening in which we see a supposedly younger Hugh Grant bopping around an oversaturated 80's-style music video with fellow "musicians" in a fictional 1980's hair-band which seems a cross between 'Wham!' and 'Duran Duran.'
Dang amusing. Especially for those of us who were teen-aged fans of similar silliness way back when.
Hugh Grant as Alex Fletcher again plays himself as the boyish big-shot Brit with silver tongue, impeccable manner, but appallingly nihilist behavior. Women are never more pleased to be screwed over entirely than when it's Grant turning the screw.
Drew Barrymore's our 30-something aimless girl, Sophie Fisher, who appears out of nowhere shortly into the film to water Fletcher's plants. Fletcher's got a shot at avoiding further humiliation by writing a hit song for a Brittney-Spears-like pop star, but he's having trouble writing the lyrics -- he's a melody man. Fisher's got a small talent for rhyming phrases, so of course Fletcher hires her on the spot.
In a series of scenes veering from the contrived to the almost- amusing, they learn about each other's sordid past, make love, write sophomoric lyrics, sing unmemorable melodies and end up selling their tune to the Spears-like pop-queen who proceeds to ruin it with heavy bass and writhing dance numbers.
In one plot turn that constituted this film's one shot for substantive character interplay, we learn Fisher was the inspiration for a fictional character her college professor wrote about in his best-selling novel and it's not a flattering portrayal. She promises Fletcher the story's unfair and that the professor was a lecherous cretin who used her and demolished her sense of self worth.
Of course within 48 hours they all happen to be dining at the same restaurant and Fletcher encourages her to confront him and reclaim her dignity. Campbell Scott plays the professor-turned-author. Scott's contribution to David Mamet's 'The Spanish Prisoner' is near legendary in sophistication and understatement so he is perfectly cast. In the face of Scott's imposing gravitas, Barrymore's Fisher is utterly helpless and we learn later the professor's characterization of Fisher's flaws may not have been entirely off-base.
But is this explored? Of course not! We've got way too much chick-flick tear-jerking to do! That whole plot-line is dropped and what a disappointment. No just-desserts for the professor. No unveiling of a darker side to Fisher. Just prat-falls and dippy dialogue.
Naturally, Fisher wants Fletcher to stand up to the pop-queen for ruining their tune and Fletcher wants to cash out and sides with the professor by way of forcing the issue. The rest is the standard chorus-line of absurdly unlikely happenstance and motivations that only occur in the movies. They dance us inevitably toward the standard predictable ending.
So why was I smiling at the end? Grants' laser-sharp one-liners and the few scenes that worked.
Plus my date was happy and I was happy she was happy.
I guess chick-flicks are good for something.
This review by Erik Gloor