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Music and Lyrics Our rating: Rate this movie   MPAA rating: PG-13 (for some sexual content) Genre: Comedy, Musical, Romance Theater release: February 14, 2007 by Warner Bros. Pictures Directed by: Marc Lawrence Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes Cast: Hugh Grant (Alex Fletcher), Drew Barrymore (Sophie Fisher), Brad Garrett (Chris Riley), Kristen Johnston (Rhonda Fisher), Haley Bennett (Cora Corman) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

The first three minutes of Music and Lyrics are arguably the best. The film opens with a brilliantly cheesy '80s music video featuring the group PoP!, singing a hit appropriately entitled "Pop Goes My Heart." Both the band and the hit are fictional, but anyone old enough to remember the dawn of the MTV-era will appreciate the historical accuracy of the clip. Checkered backdrops, big hair, bad acting, worse dancing, and monster synthesizer hooks are all put to wonderfully evocative use. And it's especially fun to realize, about 30 seconds into the video, that one of PoP!'s pretty boy leads is none other than Hugh Grant.

Hugh Grant as aging pop star Alex Fletcher

The final 93 minutes of the film may not quite live up to the glory of the first three, but they are agreeably spent exploring the present-day life of Grant's Alex Fletcher. PoP's other lead vocalist, Colin, has gone on to enjoy immense success as a solo artist, while Alex has gone on to land the occasional gig at amusement parks and '80s reunions. (You may find yourself thinking about the "other guy" from Wham). Still, Alex has managed to retain his sense of humor, his knack for melodies and a decent manager named Chris Riley (Everybody Loves Raymond's Brad Garrett). Early in the movie, Chris informs Alex that Cora, a teen dance sensation currently dominating the charts, has a penchant for retro artists and would like him to write a song and then sing it with her at the launch of her world tour. Given only a few days to deliver the song, Alex is keen to try. But first he has to find a lyricist.

Royalties have kept Alex in a swank New York apartment, with a grand piano and enough plants to warrant a plant-girl. Good thing, too, because it turns out that Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore), the substitute plant-girl, has a real knack for words. At first, Sophie resists Alex's pleas for help—her confidence as a writer has been annihilated by her former literary professor, an arrogant author (Campbell Scott) who bedded her and then based his new best seller on a withering caricature of her. In due course, however, Sophie's writerly instincts take over and she joins Alex in an around-the-clock quest to finish the song. Along the way, the creative chemistry turns romantic, complications ensue, and, well, you know. Boy meets girl, boy gets girl to help him write hit song, boy loses girl … and so on.

Drew Barrymore plays Sophie Fisher who has a way with words

When you look at the ingredients that make up Music and Lyrics, it's easy to detect a recipe for romance. Writer/director Marc Lawrence is a romantic comedy specialist, having written the Miss Congeniality movies and scripted and directed 2002's Two Week's Notice (also starring Grant). Grant and Barrymore both deliver their usual quirky charisma and are immensely watch-able—not to mention listen-able; they handle their singing parts quite ably as well. The forces behind Music and Lyrics are so confident of its romantic charm they've chosen to release the film on Valentine's Day.

And yet it is the romantic elements of the movie that are its weakest link. Grant and Barrymore are completely believable as a creative team, but the romantic development seems arbitrary—or, more accurately, obligatory. Until the moment the relationship turns amorous, Grant, 15 years Barrymore's senior, seems almost parental toward her, or at least big brotherly. The script seems to rely on the assumption that if you put two likable people in a room together for long enough, love will ensue. Such a premise is not offensive; it's just not particularly convincing.

Colin (Scott Porter) and Alex in their gig as the band PoP!

More successful is the film's gentle satire of the music industry. Newcomer Haley Bennett plays teen popstress Cora, whose "Buddhism in a thong" mix of pseudo-spirituality and blatant sexuality has brought her success and the stress that comes with it. In a scene where a video is being filmed for Cora's "Welcome to Bootytown," the over-the-top exploitation of young bodies would seem ridiculous and distasteful if it did not so accurately resemble countless real top ten videos. On the other end of the spectrum, Grant does a brilliant job inhabiting the slight desperation of an aging pop star—a scene in which he attempts to continue to dance after pulling a hamstring is classic.

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