Style is King

The Movie: Down With Love, directed by Peyton Reed
Recommendation: Broomie
Reason: "Now you have to watch it!"

I really dislike romantic comedies, as a rule. I wish that most of them were direct-to-video releases, because generally speaking they're boringly shot, uninterestingly directed and acted in by people who are really only on-set to score a paycheck. Most of them are easy, in other words. They could be on TV, and you wouldn't notice the difference. Down With Love is different. It oozes 60's style. The screen is awash in color, and everything is so very, very mod. It's delicious to the eyes. The camerawork may not be legendary, but at least the sets are creative enough that they need a large screen to be appreciated.

They cast Renee Zellweger as the lead. Oh dear...except she's not bad. She's not great, not fantastic really, just there and performing adequately. I guess I enjoy her more in pieces where she sings, though she's not a really great singer. Something about that must up her performance level, like showing a dog a treat. Speaking of, actually, Ewan MacGregor was excellent. He's a great actor, and played off his part very well. At times he was hammy, but it was called for. David Hyde Pierce still has excellent comic timing.

The plot was...alright. Enjoyable, nicely zany for a movie that was trying very hard to be 60's rah rah rah. The ending left a little to be desired, quick as it came. Not a lot more to say about it. This was a nice movie, good for a fun bit of a laugh. Not very epic, but I'm not sorry I watched it.

-26/365 down, 339/365 to go.