Songwriter Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore) gives washed-up '80s pop star Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) lessons about life. (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Somehow – and it’s one of the universe’s great mysteries – Hugh Grant’s phone-it-in, charm-coasting total lack of commitment to his craft only makes him more appealing. In Music and Lyrics, he once again plays a louche sweetheart content to do the minimum, which is an apt summary of Grant’s career. Alex travels state fairs lip-synching to perfectly authentic, perfectly awful hits by his former '80s hair band Pop!: He’s Andrew Ridgeley to his ex-partner (now Sir Ex-Partner)’s George Michael. While Alex is contemplating, with only a touch of shame, participating in a reality TV show called Battle of the '80s Has-beens, a baby Shakira superstar (Haley Bennett) rescues him by commissioning a song. But who will write the lyrics? Enter – on an adorable stumble – Sophie (Drew Barrymore), a professional plant waterer who can rhyme.
Sophie’s unusual occupation is the kind of what-the-hell? contrivance that puts the pink velvet icing on the Valentine’s Day rom-com cake. In this disposable (and totally enjoyable) genre, there’s no point in looking for logic by asking questions like: Is that really how the music industry works? What about the age-difference elephant in the room? Are we supposed to think the hellacious song these two come up with is good? Seek not truth in the temple of the romantic comedy, pray only for some good laughs and a little chemistry. Lo and behold, Music and Lyrics – while at once mechanical and helium-light – has both.
Grant’s comedic timing is impeccable, and his ego-less hip shaking can be shatteringly funny (although by the twenty-third butt shot, he had officially reached quota). But one gets the distinct impression that every funny phrase thrown out of the corner of those envelope-thin lips comes from Grant himself, and not the script. Barrymore’s part is evidence of an unsound structure: she’s sweet and unreal, the kind of movie heroine who flaps her arms and hyperventilates to express anger.
Some other, smarter film occasionally breaks the surface of Music and Lyrics, as when Alex lashes out cruelly at Sophie soon after their first night together. The dark side of the playboy’s exertion-free existence is that he doesn’t know the work it takes to love someone fully. Sophie’s disappointment in Alex – and in herself for making yet another bad choice – flicks at something substantial that quickly retreats, replaced by more nostalgia jokes about fingerless gloves. If Hugh Grant refuses to stretch, so does Music and Lyrics. But since you make it look so easy, Mr. Grant, let’s try this leading man thing again soon – this time, with effort.
Music and Lyrics opens across Canada on Feb. 14.
Katrina Onstad writes about the arts for CBC.ca.
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