Post by StevePulaski on Aug 2, 2017 23:45:08 GMT -5
Down with Love (2003)
Directed by: Peyton Reed
Directed by: Peyton Reed
Renée Zellweger.
Rating: ★★★
There is a subgenre of hip-hop music known as "conscious hip-hop" and it has been around since the inception of the genre. Tupac Shakur functioned well in that genre, working to develop it beyond buzzwords and make it fulfill its potential. It's a genre defined by being aware and alert of systemic injustices, shortcomings in the social and political playing field for African-Americans as opposed to whites, and takes a microscope (or, better yet, a microphone) to institutions that have perpetuated inequality and racism for years. Even what you might consider some of the emptiest party hip-hop music in the present day, I will bet, has some conscious undertones. Take another listen to Future's street-hit "March Madness" or the work of rising rapper Vince Staples for evidence.
The reason I preface my review of Peyton Reed's Down with Love with this ostensibly unrelated notation is because Reed's movie - which has now gone on to receive something of a renaissance thanks to Jonathan Rosenbaum's strong praise and apologists surfacing after the immense success of Damien Chazelle's La La Land - plays the notes of a "conscious romantic comedy." It's a nostalgic ode to the days of Rock Hudson and Doris Day comedies such as Pillow Talk and Send Me No Flowers, but made in 2003 with formally unspoken taboos such as sexual promiscuity and homosexuality clearly present on the surface.
Make no mistake - Down with Love is still a pretty conservative movie. It prefers to poke and jab at the way things were rather than uncomfortably position them for a rougher, tougher critique. It commendably manages to convey nostalgia and the squeaky-clean image that has defined the era in modern contexts without exuding that nauseatingly artificial sense of warm fuzziness that can very often cloak any kind of meaning or charm out of the film's premise. It pairs two opposite archetypes together as they eventually fall into a twisty relationship built on lies, deception, and the though of advancement in ideology and self on their own behalves.
The lady is Barbara Novak (Renée Zellweger), a feminist author who has just published her acclaimed novel Down with Love, a book teaching women how to work beyond love and enjoy sex without pressing commitment. The man of the hour is Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor), a womanizing writer for the magazine known as Know, which caters to male chauvinists as opposed to Barbara's target audience. The two wind up on intersecting paths when Vikki (Sarah Paulson), Barbara's editor, looks to promote the book and rubs elbows with Catcher's boss and confidant Peter (David Hyde Pierce), prompting an inevitable, if long-delayed meetup, between Barbara and Catcher. A few missed opportunities at lunch and dinner thanks to Catcher's last-minute diversions, he eventually meets her billing himself as an astronaut named "Zip Martin," a complete contrast of his ordinarily sexist self, but instead, a sweet, simple, loving man with a misplaced southern access that slips up more than an uncoordinated soul on a hardwood floor lathered with dish-soap.
Before we can talk about the chemistry Zellweger and McGregor work to convey, we need speak about the editing in Down with Love, which is fascinating and often just as funny as any line of dialog in the movie. One particularly memorable scene involves Barbara and Catcher in their own luxurious homes, wandering about their houses doing all sorts of exercises or morning routines while talking on the phone. Editor Larry Bock conceives a surprisingly zippy and fun way to position this conversation, constructing it in splitscreen to suggest the two individuals are having sex while the two talk to one another with an icy tone. She opts for some crunches while he does a round of push-ups, and don't get me started when she decides to lunge her back forward. Finish off with a cigarette and you have a truly fun, seamlessly composed scene I'd put on any resume I ever wrote if I were Bock.
Down with Love is spotty in its humor. Most of the time, the film is carried by its malleable plot, which tries a bit too hard to make the film's premise more complex than it actually is, or elevated by the breezy dynamic found in its leads. Zellweger gives one of her charmingly innocent, early-2000s performances where she smiles and uses attitude to nudge her way past, almost effectively making you think the film is better than it is thanks to her dedication as an actress, and McGregor seems to continue his ongoing commitment never to give two of the same or similar performances. The two veterans have a lot of fun in their roles and work well with material that sometimes seems to admit, through sequences set in meticulously detailed apartments and colorful, candied vintage decor, that it doesn't entirely know what direction in which it's trying to go.
For the most part, that's okay, because once again, the strengths of Zellweger and McGregor, on top of Bock's editing, set Down with Love apart from the messy, tonally confused homage it could've been. I would say the only other glaring flaw/shortcoming present in the film is that, from the first few minutes of the film, I had wished it were a musical, and by the end credits, I still harbored my unrequited desire. The sets are so pretty, the actors so attractive, and the pacing of the film so zippy and well-maintained that it really demanded a consistent dedication to song and dance numbers. One can't be too hard on a good movie for simply being good, but it's quite possible Down with Love could've helped its own stock in the present day had it cut loose every once in a while.
Starring: Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, Sarah Paulson, David Hyde Pierce, Rachel Dratch, and Jack Plotnick. Directed by: Peyton Reed.