Music From Another Room
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Movie Reviews of Music From Another Room
Movie Review: Lots to like! Some great acting from the 'supporting cast'
Summary: 3 Stars
All around charming movie, in my opinion.
Didn't much like Gretchen Mol's acting. She came across as wooden most of the time. But everyone else did a really great job.
I found it really hard to believe that the woman that dumped Jude's character early on would have done that. Danny was sweet and gorgeous. The fact that she had told him to come on down and lived with him, told him she loved him, only to move to washington that way was really hard to wrap my head around.
Otherwise, it was a great movie.
Movie Review: A Nice Movie... But
Summary: 3 Stars
This was a sweet picture, a nice picture... but with the talented cast here it should have been a great movie. There was just too slender a premise to base the story on and I had a strong desire to shake some of these people and say, "Get a grip."
Movie Review: Fun way to pass an evening...
Summary: 3 Stars
it's not spectacular, but I really enjoyed seeing Jude Law in a decent role. He's not my favorite actor (at all), but he's actually likeable here!Movie Review: A Romantic Comedy set in the Twilight Zone
Summary: 2 Stars
The main reason to see this film is to enjoy how beautiful Jude Law was in 1997. When you see his face, the first thing you think is, "Now, there is a movie star!"
Other than the glorious Law, this movie is a must-see for anyone who wants to write a screenplay or make a movie. You will learn that spending time on subplots is disastrous, you will learn how not to edit a film (why do we cut from Jude and Gretchen --as "Danny" and "Anna" -- doing it in bed at night and then, suddenly cut to Jennifer Tilly, the blind sister, getting married in the middle of the day and then back to Jude and Gretch in the afterglow of a hot session?), and you will learn that no matter how good your score is (Richard Gibbs), it cannot make up for a weak script?
In other departments, why is it that Jennifer was forced to wear schmata sweaters and mumus? She looked like a fat hausfrau who stumbled onto the set of a TV Movie of the Week! And are we really supposed to believe that Anna's father Richard (played by a lost, overbearing, overacting, clueless Bruce Jarchow) only wore sweater vests in every single kind of weather and for 30 years? Was he supposed to be a "professor"? What the hell did the man do other than complain and look around for an exit?
As for the "story" -- if Jude had come to town to work on his "mosaic" skills, then why is it he had to leave (on a train to Atlanta?) to "get away" from Gretchen?
And speaking of Gretch... I wanted to give her every single benefit of the doubt, but... I just didn't buy her performance. When photographed from the exact right angle, she was very appealing, with fabulous eyebrows, but when photographed from other angles, she looked like a cute pug-nosed 30s tap dancer.
The screenplay was filled with lines that sounded like every one was anticipating what the other actor would say. Also, characters would say things that just couldn't be said unless they were written by someone. It was insane to think that Brenda Blethyn, an absolutely fine actress, would deliver such detailed, clear, poetic sentences with her dying breaths. No, didn't cut it in that department either.
The only relationship that was interesting to me was that of Nina (Jennifer Tilly) and Jesus (Vincent Laresca). The fact that he pronounced his name as Jesus, not Hey-soose, was a running gag and it got me laughing... but more importantly, their improbable romance was cute and charming and I really wanted to know what happened in their lives. I really didn't care about everybody else... which is the enormous failing of this entire production.
The cinematography is great; it looks like the whole film was shot over a sunny week or two in a beautiful Los Angeles, so, it's all nice to look at.
Otherwise, MFAR is, at best, a superb study in what not to do when you get your big chance to make your own movie.
Movie Review: unbelievable romance, lame comedy, crowded film
Summary: 2 Stars
Yikes! I'm quite baffled by the positive reviews here! I really like Jude Law (Gattaca) and thoroughly enjoy romantic comedies, but I found this film so absolutely lame on every level that it was difficult to finish. By the time it was over, my husband and I just looked at each other and said, "Whoa, what was that?!"First, the movie has a very bizarre framing device: Law's character is asked to help deliver a baby when he is five years old. Aside from the discomfort of seeing a child reach into Brenda Blethyn's womb, the young actor must then look sweetly at the new baby and say "I'm going to marry her." This is not only bizarre, it's creepy-bizarre. Still, I tried to forgive this oddity and get on with the movie. Second, this is a great cast that is SO wasted -- Blethyn, Martha Plimpton, Jennifer Tilly and many others in this large under-utilized cast are given a number of quirks but there are so many subplots that you never get to know any of them, or why they are the way they are. Didn't someone once say, "Quirks do not a character make"? Well, that person was not this screenwriter. You just jump from one goofy but endearing mannerism or device to another. There are enough charcters here to make three romantic comedies but instead we get one overcrowded mess. Third, Jude Law is incredibly talented, but he's miscast here as a young man so in love that he affects his love interest's entire family. Law is more a button-down quiet guy, who might inspire passion but not necessarily of the exuberant, romantic variety. Fourth, the chemistry between Law and Gretchen Mol is nonexistent -- two nice actors who are NOT good together. Fifth, the music is pretty bad, intruding on the film more than accentuating the emotions. Finally, the DVD features are: the movie trailer. Whooppee!
If you want to see a fun romantic comedy that you haven't heard of, check out Happy Accidents. This film is lame despite its great cast, and one wonders why all these talented people signed on to this goofy project.