America's Sweethearts

Date watched- 6th February 2011

Genre; Romantic, Comedy
Year; 2001
Running Time; 1 hour 39 minutes
Director; Joe Roth
Written By; Billy Crystal and Peter Tolan
Actors; Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cusack and Billy Crystal.

Acting 3/5
Keeping my attention 3/4
Visuals/Direction 4/5
Story/Plot 4/6
Total 14/20

Plot

Gwen Harrison (Zeta-Jones) and Eddie Thomas (Cusack) were Hollywood’s golden couple, both on and off the screen. Now that they’ve gone their separate ways and with their new movie set to premiere it won’t be easy getting them back together to promote their last venture “Time Over Time”. The new movie is being held back by the odd-ball director Hal Weidmann (Christopher Walken) making the life of the press agent (Crystal) a nightmare. Can the press be convinced thtat Gwen and Eddie have made amends with each other? Will the film be a success? And is there more than friendship between Eddie and Gwen’s sister Kiki (Roberts)?

My Personal Views

Well yet again another movie I saw for the first time with my childhood best friend, most defiantly on VHS. I thought it was really good back then, so I pretty much bought it straight away, and I still do now. I was going through a Julia Roberts phase at the time so I would have found anything with her in a delight but this genuinely is a good romantic comedy movie. It’s funny; everyone does a really good job with that and it is romantic without being too over the top with it either. There are a few ‘oow’ comedy moments where you could either brawl around on the floor laughing or just shake your head and say ‘that just isn’t funny’ depending on who you are. I have to say for me that I do find those moments funny (in particular a moment with a cactus plant- if you’ve seen it you’ll know what I mean)

I think this might have actually been the first Catherine Zeta-Jones movie I ever saw, I had seen her in the Darling Buds of May and that had pretty much been it. She really is good; her American accent is believable and soft, whereas some Brits can be too harsh and end up sounding like they are trying too hard. So a round of applause for Zeta-Jones here I think. She plays the bitch so well too which just adds to her performance even if you forget the fact that she is not American. Also my dad met her many years ago when she was filming Entrapment and he said she was really nice, so to me she can do no wrong.

Julia Roberts is, how do I put it, Julia Roberts in a Rom-Com. Which to me is good but I’m sure everyone will have their own opinions which they are very much entitled to. I personally love her. Also she and Zeta-Jones could actually pass for sisters which makes the movie work better than if they had two people who looked completely different.

Cusack has his usual ‘dark’ edge but it kind of works in this movie and he is well cast as the actor who lost his leading lady in his personal life and wanted her back for so long.

Hank Azaria plays the Spanish lover (including lisp) of Gwen really well and fits well with the rest f the cast, this could have been so easy to get wrong. The moments he has with Cusack are funny but sometimes include language that doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the film.

The other supporting actors are very good and compliment the main cast well. Walken is as usual weird. Crystal is just funny no matter what he does and then there is Stanley Tucci as the studio producer in charge of the movie verging on the paranoid.

On a negative there are some surreal moments (of Eddie’s imaginings) and flash backs to moments in the break-up of Gwen and Eddie which sometimes don’t work brilliantly but over all a good movie.

Note: Watch out for the Rainn Wilson cameo!!

Outcome

Staying well put in my DVD collection.