Ryan Byrd’s Ramblings

Chick Flicks (sappy, lighthearted, winsome romantic comedies with happy endings), if you are forced to watch one, as every man occasionally is, at least it can be cleverly funny. Music and Lyrics^*, starring High Grant^** and Drew Barrymore, is just such a chick flick. (By the way, I haven’t done a film review in a while. The last one, in fact was Stranger than Fiction, back in Nov 2006, so I felt a movie review was overdue.)

But back to Music and Lyrics. I have found Hugh Grant’s quick, dry, British wit hilariously funny in previous movies and this latest did not disappoint me. (I think, for example, that he brought to live an otherwise dull Two Weeks Notice.) In Music and Lyrics, Grant plays a former 80s Pop Singer named Alex Fletcher who is given a career-reviving chance to write a song for Cora, a young, sultry pop singer (Haley Bennett.) Grant’s skills are mainly in his overconfident dance moves and in playing the piano, not in writing songs. Still, the deadline looms and his prospects are dim. Then Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore), a quirky writer-turned-plant watering lady arrives and Alex convinces her to use her literary talents to help write the song^***. Dreadfully predictable, dreadfully cheesy, yet still amusing enough that I didn’t fall asleep, I’ll give this film a star or two.

Movie Trivia: Alex’s 80s band was fittingly called “Pop!” and their hit song, “Pop! Goes my Heart.” You can watch the gut-wrenching boy band atrocity here. The film features a catchy tune called “Way Back into Love” that I can’t, for the life of me, get out of my head. Go ahead and click the link so that it will embed itself into your head.

* You should know that, ScreenIt, a movie review site for parents, categorizes this PG-13 movie’s sexual content as “heavy.” Read all about it here. I don’t disagree with the assessment.
** Yes, I know that Mr. Grant was arrested back in 95 for lewd contact with a whore.
*** Does Alex sleep with Sophie on their second day of lyric writing? Sadly, yes.