Like Rocky II, Like Flashdance - Inspirational Music Drives The Movie

Rating: 8/10 (13 July 2009)

Spoilers
Without the soundtrack the movie would have bombed. It is not very funny, and pretty unrealistic. At certain points the plot is downright silly and totally fairy tale oriented. But the music is another story. It makes you want to believe in the fairy tale ending that is on the screen. Let's face it, if you wanted a fairy tale ending, how do people achieve a real fairy tale ending? By believing in it!
The music inspires us to want to believe, and by the ending, we get caught up and do believe in this fantasy. The characters as well, want to believe they can be happy and go after the fairy tale ending, and in the end by believing they are happy, the become very happy. (I know this is pretty complex). This movie has the same "belief suspension" as Flashdance and Rocky II. However, if you can suspend reality for a couple hours, it is worth viewing. And really, when you think about it, maybe it isn't that unrealistic that people with heartbreak can get past the things that kept holding them back and eventually find true love.
The story is of two women who are unlucky at love. One lives in California and the other in England. They swap houses, temporarily. In their new settings, they find new love. For one character, (Played by Kate Winslet) her old flame comes after her. He wants to continue to "string her along". If he is successful, this will cause her to dump her new boyfriend (played by Jack Black), who is also being retrieved/pursued by his old unfaithful flame. After much thought, Kate's character finally comes to her senses and dumps the man who's been stringing her along, (telling him repeatedly "GET OUT!" and "I have a life to live; and you're not going be in it." and finally kicking him out the door and slamming hard it in his face). At that point the very inspirational music builds to a crescendo climax. She runs gleefully to escort an elderly man (played by Eli Wallach) to an award ceremony, her new love comes along after dumping his old unfaithful flame and they set up for a New Year's celebration in England.
The other woman Amanda Woods is played by Cameren Diaz has a male announcer's voice narrating her life as she dumps her old unfaithful boyfriend and continues a life of not trusting men. Because of not trusting men, she refuses to get real close. She follows a path of dumping the good ones and is continuing along that path with her new love played by Jude Law.
When leaving him to go back to California, she rides in a cab and it drives out the winding road away from his house. She then cries for the first time in years, and has an epiphany that is coupled with the male narrators voice saying "Amanda Woods, Welcome Back" that is also coupled with another inspirational song that causes her to turn the cab around and race back to her new love. The cab does not move fast enough and she gets out and runs accompanied by the most beautiful crescendo climax in the music. She tells her new love she wants to stay and have a New Years with him in England. The movie winds up a scene of the New Years party and the two newly formed couples dancing and having a good time and forgetting any heartache.