Movie review – “Music and Lyrics” (2007) **1/2

Enjoyable, due mostly to the charm of its stars. The film feels like a first draft rushed into production – it has a lazy meeting and set up, low stakes, and introduces heaps of promising characters and does nothing with them (why not use Hugh Grant’s former songwriting partner? Or someone else from his old band? Why don’t we see Battle of the Has Beens – it would be hilarious? Why not use Campbell Scott more? Or give Kirsten Johnson and Brad Garrett something more to do? Why not use the movie made from the book?) The role of the Britney-like singer who wants Grant to write for her is a gift role (Anna Farris did wonderfully in a similar part in Just Friends) – but the actor they cast here is blank, flat and doesn’t do anything with it. Hugh Grant’s character is a bit sketchy, they don’t seem to know whether to go in a Two Weeks Notice direction or Four Weddings (what it really needed was a bit of American Dreamz/Bridget Jones Diary). OK, let’s walk on the sunny side: the stars are likeable, Drew Barrymore is well costumed, the songs are well song (the ditty that Grant’s bang sing at the beginning is irritatingly catchy – I’m still humming it now), the “meaty” drama stuff about struggling with your art surprisingly effective (presumably the screenwriter related to a lot of stuff eg writing something “commercial”, the pressures of collaboration, using your life in your art), the climax at Madison Square Garden really captures the excitement of those concerts.