Eve4 Reviews

Hope Springs (2003)

Good performances, poor plot. Hope Falters.

[5/10 · 24 November 2006]

I am a fan of Colin Firth's work. I like Minnie Driver, Oliver Platt, and Mary Steenburgen.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

I love romantic comedies. I like British comedy. I like chick flicks. This was neither funny nor romantic. There were funny lines in it (the hairdryer), there were funny visuals, (Colin Firth twirling the ends of the scarf), and romantic bits (his gift to her). But these were only three moments out of a handful in an otherwise tedious film. The sum of the parts is much lesser than the whole. I felt really bad for the actors to suffer through the dialogue and whatever story there was. There was no chemistry between Colin (Colin Firth) and Mandy (Heather Graham). I wasn't invested enough in their shallow relationship to care whether Vera (Minnie Driver) got him back.

Maybe I fell asleep when they were explaining why Mandy downed half a bottle of alcohol(?) in the car. Maybe there was a cut scene. Or it was merely a setup for her "joyful" nude scene. Some of the filmmaker's framing of that scene reminds me of "The Graduate", where you see the backside of her calf, and all of Colin's reactions. To balance the equation, there are plenty of shirtless scenes for Colin Firth fans, and a Victoria Secrets scene for Minnie Driver fans.

Hope does not Spring from this film, it just sort of -- oozes.

One Fine Day (1996)

Great dialogue and acting uplifts this light romantic comedy

[22 July 2000]

I love a good romantic comedy. However, on first viewing I couldn't stop looking at my watch. The high point of the movie was Robert Klein's cameo as a psychologist, to whom Jack confides his feelings about Melanie. In front of a 6-year old, they use the funniest barrage of word substitutions since the scene from Mel Brooks' High Anxiety where a youngster sits amidst a convention of psychiatrists discussing Freud's theory of "peepee envy"!

But now, as a recent George Clooney convert, I admittedly re-watched this movie through rose-colored glasses. Both Clooney and Pfeiffer are convincing as frazzled single parents, despite the fact that neither of them were actually parents, off-screen. They also break two cardinal rules of acting: never share a scene with children or animals. But they manage to do both well, without losing audience attention, or treating the kids as wooden stage props.

Clooney wears his paternal role with a generous dose of charm and humor ... and a thin layer of dark chocolate! Contrast this with his portrayal of a bank-robbing vampire slayer in From Dusk Til Dawn, and you'll realize the range of his craft! Pfeiffer is as beautiful an actress as they get, but that asset is underplayed in this movie, as in most of her movies. They make a good screen couple; Their battle-of-the-sexes banter is perfect and on-target. There are just enough sparks between them to anticipate the denoument, which is sweet and satisfactory.

There is a lot of New York in this movie: Central Park, mid-Manhattan, the Circle Line, the Museum of Natural History. This is a wonderful light comedy for any Clooney or Pfeiffer fan.

Let It Be Me (1995)

If you loved "Dirty Dancing" you'll enjoy "Let It Be Me."

[17 January 2000]

If you loved "Dirty Dancing" you'll enjoy this movie; both were written by Eleanor Bergstein.

Heartwarming story about three couples at a dance studio. Perfectly cast. Jamie Goodwin and Yancy Butler make a stunning dance team. Patrick Stewart with an American accent (!) and the ever graceful Leslie Caron. Jennifer Beals, in a surprisingly conservative role, and the dashing Campbell Scott, as the confused groom-to-be.

The bar scenes between Gabriel and Jordan, are hilarious.

The score is lively, the dance sequences beautiful. It's an uplifting movie! Made me want to go out and take lessons, myself.