Down With Love Review
by Shannon Patrick Sullivan (shannon AT morgan DOT ucs DOT mun DOT ca)May 19th, 2003
DOWN WITH LOVE (2003) / *** 1/2
Directed by Peyton Reed. Screenplay by Eve Ahlert and Dennis Drake. Starring Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, David Hyde Pierce. Running time: 94 minutes. Rated PG by the MFCB. Reviewed on May 18th, 2003.
By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN
Synopsis: Barbara Novak (Zellweger) is the author of 1962's hottest-selling book, "Down With Love", which teaches women how to be sexually independent. She catches the attention of a men's magazine reporter, debonair playboy Catcher Block (McGregor), who convinces his friend and editor, Peter MacMannus (Hyde Pierce), to let him do an expose on Novak. Catcher aims to prove that, deep down, Barbara is really just a traditional, male-dependent woman -- by getting her to fall in love with him.
Review: It's stating the obvious to note that "Down With Love" is an homage to the Doris Day-Rock Hudson movies of the late Fifties and early Sixties: there's even an explicit acknowledgement of this during a song performed during the closing credits. But any homage is pointless if it just regurgitates its source material; why go to see "Down With Love" when you could just rent Day and Hudson in "Pillow Talk"? Fortunately, "Down With Love" justifies its existence by not merely being an homage, but also by poking gentle fun at the Day-Hudson formula: it takes the essence of those movies to the extreme, pulling up barely short of parody. As a result, just when you think you've got the film sussed, it takes an unexpected -- and delightful -- left turn during the final reel. Equally enchanting is the cast. McGregor and Zellweger are excellent in the Hudson and Day roles, summoning up all the requisite style and sophistication. Their innuendo-laden repartee is pitch-perfect. Also splendid is Hyde Pierce, who almost eerily echoes Tony Randall (although one of the film's few missteps is that it wastes Randall's own cameo appearance on a mirthless throwaway role). "Down With Love" recalls a time when sex comedies were high-brow rather than low-brow, intelligent rather than vulgar. These days, Hollywood rarely has such class.
Copyright © 2003 Shannon Patrick Sullivan.
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