“That’s wonderfully sensitive, Alex. Especially from a man who wears such tight pants.”
Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant star in this musically enhanced romantic comedy and have a hit tune and film on their hands - at least with this critic.
What the back of the box says:
Enter Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore), his beguiling if quirky plant lady, who has an unexpected green thumb for lyrics. Together, they go after songwriting success – and discover that if you want to write the perfect love song, it helps to fall in love.”
Hugh Grant turns on the charm as the ‘80s pop star who’s fallen into obscurity while the other half of his band Pop’s vocal duo, Colin, has gone on to greater fame and relevancy (looking like a George Michael clone though). The film starts off with a hilarious version of the music video for his band’s hit tune. He’s in a bit of a pickle when the current pop diva asks him to write her a song for her new album – by Friday.
Sadly, lyrics are not the forte of our washed up pop singer. He can write melody but lyrics were always handled by Colin, so now he must find a replacement. His manager Chris (Brad Garrett) teams him with a lyricist who is a bit of a downer nutjob. His regular plant lady has sent a replacement named Sophie who is played by Drew Barrymore at her wackiest, but also at her most charming.
She comes up with some better lyrics than the wacko that Chris sent and Alex recognizes a budding lyricist in the neurotic Sophie. He brings her on as his collaborator and comedy develops followed by love. Well, the film is charming after all. Even though I thought that Grant seemed a little old for Barrymore (there’s a 15 year difference in their ages) the combination did work for me since they seemed so nice together.
The movie will tug on your heartstrings as well as having some great songs and Grant and Barrymore do their own vocals and have decent singing voices. I really enjoyed this one and it has some clever comedy and quotable lines of dialogue. What can I say but charming.
Music and Lyrics is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. A fullscreen version is available separately. Special features include 11 minutes of deleted scenes. These are quite funny and feature some funny bits with Alex’s put upon doorman.
Next is a 4 minute “Gag Reel” with the cast flubbing their lines and other funny bits. The 13 minute “Note for Note: The Making of Music and Lyrics” follows. It has interviews with Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore, writer/director Marc Lawrence, Brad Garrett, Kristen Johnston (“Rhonda”), co-producer Scott Elias, Haley Bennett (“Cora” the bubble-headed pop diva), costume designer Susan Lyall, vocal coach Michael Raiter, and choreographer Dan Karaty. Finally, there’s the full 2 minute music video of that ‘80s smash “PoP! Goes my Heart.”
Music and Lyrics was a delight and I enjoyed every minute of it. The story may be something that’s been done before but the charm and talent of the leads pulled it off for me. It probably helped to have grown up in the ‘80s. There’s some great music in there so be prepared to seek out the soundtrack if you like the movie. I know I will.
Music and Lyrics is now available at Amazon . It is now available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a June 4th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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