BEFORE: Happy Valentine's Day, or Enforced Sentimentality Day, depending on how you look at it. My previous V-Day movies have been "Chocolat", "Say Anything", "Valentine's Day", and "The Shop Around the Corner". So why this film? I've just got a feeling that this is a little more upbeat than some of this month's entries so far.
The topic of divorce lawyers carries over from last night, and linking actors from "Intolerable Cruelty", Geoffrey Rush was also in "The Tailor of Panama" with Pierce Brosnan (last seen in "The Ghost Writer").
THE PLOT: Amidst a sea of litigation, two New York City divorce lawyers find love.
AFTER: This is a story about opposing lawyers that find themselves in contention again and again, and you know what that can lead to. A couple dinners out to discuss the specifics of a case, and before long, they're dating without really dating. Would it really be so bad if they were dating?
She's a savvy lawyer, but she's also neurotic, self-centered, unable to admit she's lonely, and prone to hysteria and hyperbole. On the upside, she looks like Julianne Moore. He's a bit more shabby, a bit more crafty, but he cleans up pretty good and occasionally manages to look as suave as Pierce Brosnan should.
Unfortunately, half of the dialogue (Moore's half) is completely moronic. Maybe she gets flustered around an attractive man, but the majority of her lines are either complete non sequiturs, or are statements that are so bloody obvious that they don't need to be said. Example: after returning to her New York apartment, she says, "Well, here we are, back in New York!" Yeah, thanks. What's the one thing that doesn't need to be said when you're back in New York? This is like panning down a shot of the Eiffel Tower, and then putting PARIS in text on the bottom of the screen.
Eventually they end up representing opposite sides in the divorce of a fashion designer from a wild rock star. (This character would ideally have been played by Russell Brand, but in 2004 Russell Brand hadn't been invented yet.) This forces them both to travel to Ireland (NOTE: this next scene is in Ireland!), to check out a castle that's the main object both parties are fighting over. While there, the lawyers attend a local festival, and realize that they're more attracted to each other than they are to the less-pretty locals.
I suppose the drunk Vegas wedding thing has been played out, so the movie goes with the drunk Irish wedding instead. And when they get back to New York ("Hey, we're back in New York!") another contrivance demands that rather than file for divorce, which would somehow be bad publicity (ironic for the woman who claimed there was no stigma to divorce) they pretend to live as a couple, and in a case of "Fake it 'til you make it", find themselves enjoying each other's company.
In the case of Moore's character, I'm not sure why she didn't fully embrace the concept of accidentally getting married - she had no other prospects, and given her personality, this seemed like her best option. I kept thinking she was going to be a wreck when the whole thing was revealed as her faux-husband's scheme to get into her bedroom, but it didn't go that way. Things end on a sweet note, so at least that justifies my choice of film tonight. Still, it's just a bit too madcap, perhaps they were trying too hard to revive the feel of the screwball comedies of the 1940's.
NITPICK POINT: In the social pages of NYC newspapers, there's a definite heirarchy of celebrity - movie stars, athletes and models dominate. The private lives of lawyers are generally not "Page 6" material.
NITPICK POINT #2: These are supposedly top-notch lawyers, who check every little loophole for their clients, yet neither one takes the time to look into their own accidental wedding, to find out if it's genuinely legal? Let's start with getting married in a foreign country, where neither is a resident. Was there paperwork filed, are the signatures legible, were there witnesses? I can sort of see this as a symbol that they secretly want to be married, but it's still a glaring oversight.
Also starring Julianne Moore (last seen in "The End of the Affair"), Frances Fisher (last seen in "The Kingdom"), Michael Sheen (last seen in "Tron: Legacy"), Parker Posey (last seen in "Mixed Nuts"), Nora Dunn.
RATING: 4 out of 10 goat's nut shots
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