America's Sweethearts Review
by Bob Bloom (bobbloom AT iquest DOT net)July 19th, 2001
AMERICA'S SWEETHEARTS (2001). 3 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cusack, Billy Crystal, Stanley Tucci, Hank Azaria, Christopher Walken, Alan Arkin and Seth Green. Written by Crystal and Peter Tolan. Music by James Newton Howard. Directed by Joe Roth. Approx. 110 minutes. Rated PG-13.
With an all-star cast and a script that keeps the laughs coming almost continuously, Americaí's Sweethearts is a delight.
This Joe Roth-directed comedy mixes farce, satire, physical humor and romance to create a winning feature that will keep you chuckling.
The story is simple: An estranged movie-star couple must come together for a press junket weekend to promote their 10th and final film pairing. Along the way, they bring their emotional baggage, resentments and hostilities.
Oh, and one of them falls in love.
America's Sweethearts has an old-fashioned quality despite some raunchy humor. It's a distant cousin to the screwball comedies of the 1930s and '40s. Some of the more outrageous moments are reminiscent of those zany Preston Sturges movies from the early '40s such as Sullivan's Travels.
Sweethearts has a sweetheart of a cast, headed by Julia Roberts and featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cusack, Billy Crystal (who also co-wrote the script and produced the film), Hank Azaria, Stanley Tucci, Alan Arkin and Christopher Walken.
The movie is filled with little gems, from Tucci's maniacally frustrated studio head describing to veteran press agent Lee Phillips (Crystal) why Senor Wences was the only true show biz genius, to Cusack's Eddie Thomas and Phillips taking a bow above the junketís press corps after Eddie nearly falls from the hotel roof in what the press perceives as a suicide attempt.
Some nice one-liners also abound. When Eddie shows up alone at the hotel, he is asked about the whereabouts of his entourage. I'm a paranoid schizophrenic. "I'm my own entourage," he responds.
Performances sparkle throughout America's Sweethearts. Zeta-Jones is cruelly funny as the pampered, spoiled, self-centered movie star who treats every minor inconvenience as a cataclysmic disaster.
Cusack's Eddie, while more grounded in reality, practices some New Age mumbo-jumbo to help remain centered. But he also flashes his movie star ego at times, worrying about grosses and the trajectory of his career.
Roberts is the comedy's heart. She plays Kiki, Gwen's sister and assistant. Her movie-star sibling treats her more like a go-fer than a sister. She uses love and sisterly devotion to wheedle Kiki into catering to her every whim.
And it seems she has been doing this her entire life. Kiki reminds her that in high school when Gwen wanted to break up with a boyfriend, she'd send Kiki to break the bad news. "I wound up being the most hated girl in school," Kiki tells her oblivious sibling.
To make matters more complicated, Kiki is in love with Eddie and believes Gwen treated him badly.
Crystal is connivingly convincing as the always-thinking press agent who sees every misstep or accident as an opportunity as a movie promotion.
Walken, looking like a Woodstock burn-out case, is hilariously weird as the director who brings his singular vision to the movie he was supposed to have shot.
Veteran Arkin turns in a sly appearance as Eddie's therapist who spouts Eastern bromides that sound sage, but really make no sense at all.
The movie's only major misstep is in Azaria's portrayal of Hector, Gwen's Spanish lover. His characterization comes close to being an offensive stereotype of Latino machismo as he seems only to be concerned about his reputation as a lover and the size of his penis.
America's Sweethearts is a honey or a comedy, a movie you'd want to cuddle up with. It's warm and cute as well as satirical and sharp.
Plus, you get to see Julia Roberts in a fat suit. Who could ask for anything more!
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or at [email protected]. Bloom's reviews also can be found at www.jconline.com by clicking on golafayette
Bloom's reviews also appear on the Web at the Internet Movie Database site: http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
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