Just pretend the last 40 years haven’t actually passed by and you’re right in time for cool comic movie Down with Love. The script is so filled with double entendres that it couldn’t have possibly been made in 1963 as it pretends except that in those years just before the Summer of Love perhaps real conversation was filled with them. Either way, makes for a whole lot of laughs.
Investigative reporter Ewan McGregor stars as the Manhattan bachelor who every gal will sleep with and Renee Zellweger as the out of nowhere writer preaching a beyond Helen Gurley Brown philosophy of “Down With Love” so women put aside (romantic) love in favor of empowerment. Her book becomes a bestseller and ruins McGregor’s fun, pushing him to turn his celebrated journalistic skills on her. If the overnight sensation can be conned into falling in love, she’ll be discredited and he’ll have all the female fun desired.
Director Peyton Reed really does recreate the early ’60s, visually, sonically, and stylistically, going so far to have a big “Filmed in Cinemascope” credit in the opening credits. The soundtrack adds a very hip, cool element with Sinatra and bossa nova tunes plus a video featuring the two stars singing and dancing next to the end credits. The clothes, especially the women’s fashions, are just over the top, as are the set decorations (such as the amazing temporary housing Zellweger is set up in on her arrival).
David Hyde Pierce and Sarah Paulson head up a strong supporting crew as the respective best friends/co-workers; they also, of course, fall in love. Pierce plays the role Tony Randall specialized in, back in the day, while Randall has a decent cameo as the owner of the publisher where Zellweger and Paulson work. Most of the supporting roles, in fact, are filled by people we know best from TV: Jeri Ryan from Star Trek: Voyager is the most visible of McGregor’s playfriends, Jude Ciccolella (24), and Saturday Night Live supplies Rachel Dratch as Paulson’s secretary, Chris Parnell as a TV host, and Laura Kightlinger as a receptionist.
The plot swerves and twists in the last 20 minutes, ending up where you expect but after taking you for a different ride. Zellweger, in fact, has a very impressive soliloquy that threw me and the bud for a loop, to which McGregor reacts in sheer shock.
Definitely recommended
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