Music and Lyrics

Directed By: Marc Lawrence

Starring: Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore, Brad Garrett, Kristen Johnston, Haley Bennett, Campbell Scott

You're fools to try to be songwriters!
-Barry Mann

The Film

Music and Lyrics is a romantic comedy centering around the characters of faded 80s pop-star Alex Fletcher (Grant) and surprisingly literate substitute plant waterer Sophie Fisher (Barrymore). Alex has been living off of nostalgia fumes from his time in a popular 80s band, but now finds himself being offered has-been celebrity boxing gigs and shows at class reunions and progressively smaller amusement parks. In an ominously Spinal Tap-like moment, his manager, Chris (Garrett), even informs him that Knott's Berry Farm has cancelled. A chance to improve his fortunes falls into his lap when current pop star and former childhood fan Cora Corman (Bennett) asks him to compose a new song for her. His attempts at working with a hot contemporary lyricist recommended by Chris prove disastrous, until he notices that Sophie is extemporaneously coming up with better lyrics while spraying his plants than his designated collaborator. Alex spends the rest of the film convincing Sophie to work with him, helping her to work through some past romantic trauma, reigning in her burgeoning artistic conscience when Cora decides to adapt their song to her faux-Eastern-spiritual booty-shaking style, and, of course, falling for her in the process.

"Music and Lyrics" is a straight down the middle romantic comedy which steadfastly avoids even a hint of any fresh twists on the genre. That being said, Barrymore, Grant, and writer/director Marc Lawrence have made so many of these films, both good and bad, that they manage to pull it off in a skillfully professional fashion.

There are so many places that the film could have gone astray, that one has to admire the filmmakers just for avoiding the pitfalls. The inherent 80s kitsch factor is not overdone, giving us just enough of it to evoke a few knowing chuckles for those old enough to remember without resorting to depicting everyone from the era with some combination of a Flock of Seagulls hairdo, a red leather "Beat It" jacket, a "Lucky Star" lingerie on the outside outfit, and/or a "Frankie Say..." t-shirt. Similar restraint is shown in underplaying Alex's has-been status. He recognizes it, makes peace with it to the extent that he can, and does not seem to be unreasonably pining to be back on top so much as to pull out of his career tailspin enough to play a better class of amusement park. Writer-director Lawrence avoids the temptation to revel in Alex's pathetic circumstances and overplay it for easy laughs (and some of the included deleted scenes show that he was toying with this idea before wisely abandoning it). Similarly, Barrymore plays Sophie as a fairly grounded individual whose quirks seem to connect to her past disappointments rather than stem from her being a flake.

Barrymore and Grant are both generous actors who always seem to make their co-stars shine, and they complement each other well. The filmmakers' decision to play the main characters as identifiable adults brings credibility to the romantic aspects of the plot despite the obvious age difference. On the technical side, Grant and Barrymore do their own singing, acquitting themselves fairly well, although if you have an ear for it, you will be able to recognize that Barrymore's voice is processed with an auto-tuning device set somewhere between "stun" and "kill". Grant's signature dance moves for Alex are very amusing, but not too far exaggerated from things I have seen in vintage Wham videos.

Much of the humor in the movie is derived from the reactions of Grant and Barrymore to the various ridiculous circumstances in which they find themselves. This means that the supporting actors are asked to bring the silly, which they generally do quite well. The height difference between Garrett and Grant alone is kind of funny, and while it is never commented on overtly, it is emphasized in the framing of "two-shots" that make Grant seem as small as Alex must feel. Speaking of tall co-stars, Kristen Johnston is amusing as Barrymore's older sister who was a hardcore fan of Grant's old band and is incapable of containing her enthusiasm about it. Haley Bennett strikes the right space cadet tone as a newly-minted pop-Diva who likes to mix East Indian religious iconography with her over-sexualized teen bumping and grinding. Campbell Scott plays a former professor and paramour of Sophie's who broke her heart and then wrote a bestselling book about it. His character and subplot are somewhat under-developed, and exist only to saddle Sophie with some emotional baggage.

One area where the film excels is in its music. It is filled with original songs that are supposed to have been hits in the 80s or be in the mold of modern pop music, and they all sound convincing and evocative of the appropriate era. Even the song that Alex and Sophie are struggling to write throughout the first half of the movie is a catchy enough ballad that you don't mind constantly revisiting it. This song was written by Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger who previously wrote the similarly durable title tune for Tom Hanks' "That Thing You Do". Later in the film, Alex must sing a song that sounds like a heartfelt plea written by an admittedly poor lyricist, and the song fits the character and the moment perfectly.

The biggest misstep in the film is its unconvincing second act relationship meltdown which feels a bit contrived and out of character for both Alex and Sophie. From this point on, the characters are basically plot marionettes behaving as necessary so that the movie can play out to its expected resolution, which takes its cue from an increasing number of recent romantic comedies by taking place in a stadium full of people. The end result is charming, if ultimately unmemorable, but that still puts it ahead of most recent entries in the genre.
 

The Video

Having noticed a tendency towards general softness and mosquito noise along high contrast edges in recent Warner DVDs for films made employing digital intermediates, I was pleasantly surprised to find few such issues with the transfer for "Music and Lyrics". I was, however, mildly disappointed with some sporadic low intensity ringing along vertical high contrast edges. Other than that, the transfer for "Music and Lyrics" was generally very pleasant and film-like. The exposure is pushed harder during the concert scenes near the film's end, which results in occasionally higher levels of grain with some mild blockiness when the compression has trouble rendering it. The theatrical aspect ratio has been expanded slightly to fill the entire 16:9 enhanced frame.

The Audio

Much like the film itself, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack does not attempt to do much, and succeeds modestly. The surround channels are almost exclusively used for light ambience to support the dialog-focused mix, and generally contribute to a pleasing, mildly immersive experience. Surround and LFE activity are used most conspicuously in the concert sequences towards the end of the film to recreate a booming three-dimensional stadium environment. Alternate DD 5.1 French and Spanish language dubs are also available.

The Extras

The disc is offered with a modest helping of extras. When the disc is first spun up, we are offered a set of skippable theatrical and DVD promotional trailers for "Nancy Drew", "No Reservations", "The Astronaut Farmer", "Seinfeld" Season 8, and "In the Land of Women". All are presented in 4:3 letterboxed video with 2.0 audio except for the "Seinfeld" DVD trailer which is 4:3 full frame.

From the extras menu, you have access to a series of eight Deleted Scenes running just over 11 minutes: "Meeting Cora", "Alex and Khan", "Phone Messages", "Too Many Words", "Vinny Sings", "Carousel", "On Mars", and "Colin Calls". About half of them include Khan, the doorman character. All of them are mildly entertaining on their own, but the film could easily have been unbalanced by their inclusion since they make Alex seem too pathetic, they try to coarsely draw a parallel between Alex and Sophie's past betrayals, and they paint Chris too broadly as a comically inept father. The finished film was wise to avoid going down those plot paths. The scenes are presented in letterboxed 4:3 video with 2.0 audio.

Next up is a Gag Reel running just over four minutes with the usual assortment of blown lines, muffed takes, and bleeped profanity. Unlike the Deleted Scenes montage, the bloopers are presented enhanced for 16:9 televisions. Audio is 2.0 stereo.

The featurette, "Note for Note: The Making of Music and Lyrics" runs 13 minutes, and is very fluffy and promotional in nature with lots of mutually expressed admiration for everyone who collaborated on the film, but little substantial behind the scenes information. It is presented in 4:3 video letterboxed to a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Finally, we have the two and a half minute music video for "Pop Goes My Heart" presented without intrusion from the opening or closing credits. It is a pretty amusing pastiche of 80s pop video cliches for those who remember the televised works of Duran Duran, A-Ha, ABC, Wham, and the like. It is presented in 4:3 video, letterboxed to a 16:9 ratio with 2.0 audio.
 

Packaging

The disc comes packaged in a standard hard plastic Amaray-style keepcase with no insert. The cover image has a refreshingly un-photoshopped look to it, simply showing an image of Grant and Barrymore sitting at a piano looking charming that conveys exactly what the movie is all about.

Summary

"Music and Lyrics" is a pleasant romantic comedy that sets the bar low, and clears it easily thanks largely to the performances of its two stars. This puts it ahead of most recent entries in the genre, but does not result in a film that one is inclined to think about much once it is over. It is presented on DVD with very good audio, decent video, and some minimal, mildly diverting extras.