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Volume CXXXI, Number 24 |
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A comedy, or something like it
MONICA GUZMAN
COLUMNIST
I apologize in advance for my review choice this week. I didn't know
what I was getting into. All I had heard about this movie was that it
had Angelina Jolie and that her character's life changed due to a startling
prophecy that she was going to die. I thought it was a thriller-a suspense
drama of sorts. I know, I know; I should've been more careful.
I wasn't tipped off until I walked up to screen four and saw the film's mylar (the strip poster next to the movie times): a big smiling platinum-blond head of Angelina Jolie on one side and a frustrated little Edward Burns leaning on the other side. Classic chick flick poster design-drat. I then briefly considered sneaking over into The Scorpion King, smacked myself for thinking such a horrible thing, and trudged in under the mylar's gaze. I swear Angelina was smirking at me.
In a state of denial, I looked at the bright side. I reminded myself
that this was an Oscar-winning actress. But then I thought about the director,
Stephen Herek. Previous works include Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
Somehow Oscar-winning actress and a stoned Keanu Reeves didn't really
seem to mesh well. No good.
Life or Something Like It is the story of Lanie Kerrigan (Angelina
Jolie), a local news reporter with a seemingly perfect life that is thrown
into question once a homeless prophet tells her that she will die in a
week and his other predictions start coming true. Little by little, she
begins to see the superficiality in her life and makes accordant changes;
namely, of course, she gives up her lifelong broadcasting dreams to continue
a relationship with co-worker Pete (Edward Burns).
Women's Studies would have a field day with this one: working woman out
on the town about to make it big "realizes" that she has to
give it up in order to be happy with her "true love" guy. But
hey-that's what chick flicks are supposed to do: provide love-sick women
with vicariously-fulfilled romantic fantasies. And why not?
Well, fine, but I never thought Angelina would go for this. She's a rebellious,
mentally unstable power-girl in Girl Interrupted, the femme fatale
in Original Sin, then she steadily declines to the male spectacle
Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, and now she has fallen to the status
of female envy magnet. Cute, but disappointing. Not a lot of high-class
acting going on. She needs to get back to the good roles.
As for Edward Burns, he was there pretty much to be looked at. The man
is sexy as all hell, but can't really act (take the Robert De Niro disaster
15 Minutes, for example). I didn't see the chemistry between the
two leads much either. As in many chick flicks, their relationship goes
from a childish "Much Ado About Nothing" I-hate-you, you-hate-me
battle of wits to an all-out romance. This method, though sweet and sometimes
effective, is getting old.
So, anyway, the directing was very Mighty-Duckish (another of Herek's
films), with a general overly-optimistic mood and people randomly breaking
out into song-namely a rendition of "I Can't Get No Satisfaction"
sung by random participants in a strike, as though they were in a musical.
Oh dear.
The story wasn't all that thought-provoking or intelligent-it was pretty
much just a skeleton for the girl-needs-boy plot. The only thing tagging
you along is the question of whether or not Lanie's actually gonna die.
Not that that's hard to figure out. This isn't Sweet November or
City of Angels, it's Bill and Ted. But hey-I don't want to spoil
the ending…
But then, of course, a happy ending always makes you feel good, and this
is what this movie does and does well. So if you need a vicarious fantasy
this weekend, head towards Angelina's neon-yellow hair. She'll do the
same old thing, but she won't let you down. As for me, I'm starting the
summer season off right with a movie with zero chick flick appeal: Sam
Raimi's Spiderman (reader cheers). Yeah that's right.
Enjoy the summer, dear readers, and I'll see you all next year.