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 OBVIOUSLY IT'S NOT THE BEST LOVE STORY EVER WRITTEN. IT'S YOUR TYPICAL LOVE STORY WHERE RIVALS BECOME LOVERS AND EVENTUALLY MARRIED. WE ALL KNEW AUDREY WOODS (JULIANNE MOORE) WAS GOING TO BE ATTRACTED TO HER RIVAL PLAYED EXCEPTIONALLY WELL BY MR. BROSNAN. THE MOVIE IS ALL AROUND VERY PRIDICTABLE. IS THAT NECESARILLY A BAD THING? NO! THERE WERE SOME TEAR JERKING MOMENTS AND PLENTY OF LAUGHS! BROSNAN AND MOORE DIDN'T HAVE THE BEST CHEMISTRY IN MOVIES BUT THEY STILL DID A GOOD JOB TOGETHER. I TOOK A DATE TO THIS MOVIE. WE HAD A WONDERFUL TIME WATCHING IT AND LAUGHED QUITE A BIT THROUGHOUT THE FILM. THIS IS NOT THE KIND OF MOVIE THAT A SELF-ESPECTING HETEROSEXUAL MALE WOULD GO SEE EXCEPT ON DATES. THIS IS A MOVIE FOR COUPLES. EVEN COUPLE WANNABES. HIGHLY RECOMENDED.
The direction is usually crisp and brisk though there are times when I wished it would slow down a bit. There could have been a bit more character development especially after their marriage but then we get a lot more from them together as a couple than we usually get in romantic comedies. The dialogue could have been a tad sharper, especially Moore's, but then her fumbling and tongue tied-ness often works with her character who while a wiz in the courtroom is socially backward in relationships. The entire look of the film is lovely and the music light and bright. Frances Fisher is a standout as the botox junkie mother. She has some of the best lines, delivering them all with pitch perfect timing and a great dry wit and flair. I even liked the caricatured, at each other's throats, couple, especially Michael Sheen's Thorne. Yes his character is basically a reject from Spinal Tap but he's a rather good reject. Parker Posey does her patented shrill woman on or over the edge but as usual she makes it work. Julianne Moore while not a natural comedienne and with a couple of miss timed barbs, nonetheless has a crackling energy and manages to make her character believably and sometimes simultaneously neurotic, quirky, smart, foolish, and warm... she's human. Which brings us to Pierce Brosnan. Here he's sexy, magnetic, relaxed, funny, warm, sharp, devious, intelligent, and unbelievably charismatic. Unlike so many of his male romantic comedy counterparts he also comes across as a man and not a boy trapped in a man's body, and that is oh so appealing. He hasn't had a role that's allowed him to be so light and loose since Remington Steele (he was dark and loose in The Tailor of Panama) and he's matured considerably as an actor since then. With perfect comic timing and immense personal charm there isn't a line or action in the film he doesn't hone and shine until it positively sparkles, making it look effortless in a way only the truly skilled can. And even though I liked the film quite a bit, what the man really deserves is his own Billy Wilder or Howard Hawks, he's that brilliant.
The new film LAWS OF ATTRACTION, does neither. It just sits there, an incoherent mess that would have improved if those involved would have taken the time and energy to realize they had a stinker on their hands. It's poorly written, the dialogue rings false and feels stilted, and the charming couple we should be rooting doesn't have enough chemistry to make ice. In LAWS Juilianne Moore stars as Audrey, the top divorce lawyer in New York City. She hasn't lost a case yet, (I sometimes wonder if there is such a lawyer in the country), that is until she meets the dashing Daniel Rafferty (Pierce Brosnan) a divorce lawyer that seems to be her equal. The two meet, get drunk, make love, and get the cases of their careers, against each other. Can the fates draw them together? Can they survive this case when they're obviously in love? Can they survive getting drunk and married? This movie will answer these questions exactly how you think they will. With all the scripts running around Hollywood I wonder how this one got made. I wonder who thought this was a multimillion-dollar idea. I'd also like to meet the casting director who thought that Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore would make a great match. I also wonder why these actors wanted to make this movie? The main problem with the film is that it lacks any real heart. Sure there are plenty of sentimental moments, inspirational speeches about the sanctity of marriage and the bonds of love, but it does nothing with them because the film hopelessly meanders through plot setup after plot setup, without any real rhyme or reason. Every moment, every word, and every character motivation is used simply to get us to the end and provide bad sitcom-like one-liners and over-dramatic scenes of tension. Director Peter Howitt has done romantic comedy before with so much more splash. His delightful SLIDING DOOR offered something new and different. The only nice words I have to say to him is that it looks great. From the interesting opening shots of the New York skyline to the lush hills of Ireland, he delivers cut picture perfect postcards of all the locations. But you'll probably ask the same question I did, why the heck did they go to Ireland in the first place? Poor Julianne Moore is wasted in this film. She plays her part with an almost reckless charm. The script calls her to be neurotic at one moment, smart and sassy the next and bubbly like a cheerleader most of the time. The script asks her to look sexy in business suits and pretty in dresses but not to act like a human being. There is no depth to Audrey. She's stupid. I kept wondering why she played the character so flighty. Moore is a talented actress who still has many great roles ahead of her. I hope this movie was made just so she could buy a bigger house or maybe a third Porsche. Please Ms. Moore don't sell you talent out to the Hollywood. Brosnan on the other hand acts so holier-than-thou throughout you wonder if it was stipulated in his contract that he not show off any of his flaws. His character is so poorly written you wonder how he even got the nerve to play it. If I had been in it I would have constantly asked the director what am I doing here. Poor Brosnan, I'd love him to play a dashing villain sometime, for me please. I think LAWS OF ATTRACTION was probably made with noble intentions. I liked what it was trying to say that even in this world where marriage is so temporary, true love and happy marriages can and do still exist. I just wish the screenplay had been tighter and that the characters had been better written. Noble intentions don't make good movies. LAWS OF ATTRACTION is just not worth the price of admission. It's not worth 90 minutes of your day. Life is so short and this movie is just not worth it. Why not go for a nice walk and enjoy the warm spring air. Remember summer is coming and that means the fun big budget blockbusters are almost here. YEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!! *1/2 out of 5 |
"Laws of Attraction" is a romantic comedy about two high-powered divorce lawyers who are battling each other in and out of court. The movie from Hollywood history that obviously comes to mind as a reference point is "Adam's Rib" with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. But the reason this 2004 film falls short is not because it has Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore instead of Tracy and Hepburn, but because the story and screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna ("Three to Tango"), worked on by Robert Harling ("The First Wives Club"), is not even close to being in the same league as what Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon wrote for their good friends Spencer and Kate way back when.
There are two genres in the cinema that have a hard time staying fresh: the first one is the sports movie, the other is the romantic comedy. Sports movies are basically will they win or will they lose. Romantic comedies are stuck with the premise that two adorable people are destined to be together and since it's a comedy they can spend the whole movie looking for each other but in the end they must be drawn together. If they broke up the cute little comedy would be a tragedy, and what self-respecting romantic would want that. The only real way to lift films like these out of the conventional is to give us characters that are charming and/or pleasant to be around and/or a gimmick to pull us in.
