America's Sweethearts
by Joe Roth
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Billy Crystal, Hank Azaria, Jim Ferguson, John Cusack, Marty BelafskyDirector: Joe Roth
Brand: Sony
Cinematographer: Phedon Papamichael
Composer: James Newton Howard
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); French (Dubbed)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 102 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-10-30
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of America's Sweethearts
Movie Review: messed-up send-up
Summary: 3 Stars
Oh, yeah... this one. You'd think, given the caliber of the actors involved, that AMERICA'S SWEETHEARTS would've come out a more entertaining picture. But, while it does have its standout moments (some, not many), the movie more than anything feels smug and condescending. So, while I guess I overall enjoyed watching the movie, parts of it leave me cold. If you toil in the Hollywood industry, then you may get more out of this film and also better appreciate all those knowing insider digs. Me, I'm kind of shaking my head at the wasted potential, wondering how two terrific performers like John Cusack and Julia Roberts manage to get caught sleepwalking thru their roles.
America's movie sweethearts are actually estranged actor couple Gwen Harrison (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Eddie Thomas (John Cusack). They've gone their separate ways but are convinced by their smarmy, conniving press agent Lee Phillips (Billy Crystal) into going on a press junket in the desert to promote their latest picture. The self-absorbed Gwen goes because her cinematic career is on the skids. And Eddie, a neurotic wreck, he goes because he still hopes to reconcile with Gwen, despite a year and a half in therapy (apparently, he tried to kill her).
Lee Phillips, orchestrating and scrambling like mad while he manages his bickering, high maintainance problem couple, is stressed out because he hasn't yet seen the actual movie. He keeps the press junket film critics at bay by contriving an illusion that Gwen and Eddie are still together and also by holding the special film screening in the desert, where the press is easier to control. Oh, and then there's Kiki (Julia Roberts), Gwen's saintly personal assistant and once-fat-but-now-slender sister, who's still carrying a torch for Eddie. And off they all go.
Sheer star power attempts to carry this picture; it's certainly not the story. AMERICA'S SWEETHEART is a lightweight farce and a predictable halfhearted romance, and it fails in its try to recapture the frenetic magic of those old screwball films of the '30s and '40s. I guess the most disappointing thing is that the leads, as likeable as they are, still fail to make their characters warm and sympathetic This just might possibly have been done on purpose. Billy Crystal, who co-wrote the screenplay, seems to have intended for this story to be a snarky expos? on the hypocrisy and silliness of Tinseltown, more so than a winsome romantic comedy, and I'm guessing that this called for a demonstration of how utterly silly and superficial and vain most actors are. Mission accomplished, but I find myself lukewarm to these characters and without inclination to root for anyone. Of them all, I'm leaning towards liking Hank Azaria's character best, because as oily and narcissistic as Gwen's macho boyfriend may be, he still comes off the most honest. Azaria looks like he's having a lot of fun as Hector the Latin lover, and I dig that line Hector says when being interviewed: "I really want to play a character like the Terminator, because I think the Hispanic people are crying out to see a deadly destructive killing machine that they can embrace as their own."
As I've already said, I enjoyed the film more so than not because, when push comes to shove, I do like these actors. But it's a bland sort of enjoyment. AMERICA'S SWEETHEARTS really is a case of could've been more, should've been more. It's a very workable premise, with the film starting off promisingly in a series of nice set-ups. But then the film succumbs to generic, cliched storytelling, turning into what it first intended to lampoon. For one thing, I wish the press junket backdrop were mined more in terms of satire and humor. And, as much as I like Julia Roberts, I'm not sure she was right for her part, too bigger than life for the mousy Kiki. Anyway, to add a finishing touch to this Hollywood send-up, the whole thing climaxes shrilly during the screening of Gwen and Eddie's new movie, in which dirty laundry is publicly aired, weewees are disparaged, and Christopher Walken makes a grand entrance. As intimacy and taste and biting wit circle down the drain, giving up the ghost.
Summary of America's Sweethearts
For kiki being the personal assistant to beautiful megastar gwen isnt easy. In fact its nearly impossible since the man of her dreams is eddie. Gwens estranged husband. Kiki is given the monumental task of helping gwen and eddie make it through a press junket organized by publicity exec lee phillips. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 07/19/2005 Starring: Julia Roberts Catherine Zeta-jones Run time: 103 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Joe RothAmerica's Sweethearts is just the kind of romantic froth that makes for pleasant viewing on a lazy, rainy day. While Julia Roberts, John Cusack, and Catherine Zeta-Jones offer high-wattage marquee value, costar and cowriter Billy Crystal reworks Singin' in the Rain for latter-day Hollywood, where estranged superstars Gwen (Zeta-Jones) and Eddie (Cusack) reluctantly promote their latest movie by pretending their messily disputed relationship is still going strong. The studio chief (Stanley Tucci) is desperate for a hit, so he hires a seasoned publicist (Crystal) to orchestrate a press junket that will cast everyone in a profitable light. The catch: The director (Christopher Walken) has abducted his own film in an act of artistic extortion, and Gwen's sister and longtime assistant Kiki (Roberts) is the true object of Eddie's desire.
Chaos ensues at the luxury hotel where the junket is scheduled, and America's Sweethearts pokes easy fun at the cynical machinery that keeps Hollywood running. Quotable quips are delivered in abundance, and while Zeta-Jones is readily convincing as a bitchy narcissist, Roberts effortlessly steals the show with her trademark charms. All of which makes America's Sweethearts lightly entertaining, even though it never rises (like Roberts's earlier Notting Hill) to the level of classic romantic comedy, hampered by a script that too often substitutes easy laughs for ripe satirical invention, flashing a phony grin when it should be baring its fangs. --Jeff Shannon
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