 What
goes around, comes around...especially in Hollywood.
For proof
of that, look no further than last November's Far From Heaven,
director Todd Haynes' glorious ode to the Douglas Sirk melodramas
of the 1950's. Now director Peyton Reed (Bring It On) takes
on the next decade with the super-saturated retro-romp Down
With Love, a lovingly textured homage to the innocent Rock
Hudson-Doris Day sex comedies of the early 1960's. Thanks to groovy
production values, a snappy soundtrack and the irresistible chemistry
between Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor, Down With Love
is a candy-colored pop-cultural feast that will perk you up with
joy.
The time
is 1962, and ambitious author Barbara Novak (Renee Zellweger)
has just arrived in New York to promote her new female empowerment
book "Down With Love." After a couple of ill-fated attempts
to secure an interview with top magazine reporter Catcher Block
(Ewan McGregor), Barbara's book gets a major plug on TV and becomes
a national phenomenon. Now Catcher's job is on the line, but the
only way he can seduce Barbara and expose her as a fraud is by
pretending to be someone else. The problem is, when sparks really
begin to fly between them, Barbara and Catcher are torn between
sticking to their professions or giving in to their true feelings.
Think of
Down With Love as a blend of late 50's-early 60's classics
like Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back and Send Me No Flowers
by way of this year's Valentine's Day offering How
to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Actually, the premise is a little
too reminiscent of 10 Days -- with Catcher trying to make
Barbara fall in love with him while she tries to fend him off
-- but at least the movie has a few tricks up its sleeve to make
it more unique.
The biggest
trick is that Down With Love is a Technicolor dream, bursting
with more style, fashion, fun and charm than even Steven Spielberg's
Catch Me if You Can
(which took place around the same time). Reed infuses real stock
footage of New York City with snazzy apartments, fake backgrounds
and jazzy dinner clubs to pay tribute to the classics, and as
a result, the movie is very self-aware of its intentions with
everyone in on the joke.
The problem
is that Down With Love is a little too clever for its own
good, and the wink-wink-nudge-nudge novelty wears off after a
while. The supporting material isn't strong enough to carry you
through the film (although the big twist at the end has to be
seen -- and heard -- to be believed!), and the sexual innuendoes
fall short of their humorous potential while recalling similar
gimmicks that were done better in the Austin Powers movies.
There's no
doubt that Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor did their homework
while studying the campy, exaggerated mannerisms of Doris Day
and Rock Hudson. Zellweger continues to make the right choices
(after Bridget Jones's Diary and Chicago) and prances
around like an adorable Barbie-doll, while McGregor seems to relish
hamming it up as the dapper playboy who can't seem to keep his
shirt on. Even Frasier's David Hyde Pierce is perfectly
cast as McGregor's neurotic boss, recalling the similar characteristics
of perennial Hudson-Day co-star Tony Randall (who makes an appearance
here).
Down With
Love is an entertaining love letter to a bygone era that's
more of a feast for the eyes than a stimulation of the mind, but
stick around for the closing credits, when Zellweger and McGregor
bring down the house with a glorious song-and-dance routine. It's
the best scene in the movie and hints at what the rest of the
film could have been, but I wouldn't worry. Now that the 50's
and the 60's have had their due, it's only a matter of time before
some ambitious filmmaker takes on the 70's and sets a love story
against the backdrop of disco.
It would
make perfect sense. After all, what goes around, comes around...
especially in Hollywood.
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