[DVD Review R2] I COULD NEVER BE YOUR WOMAN
Ah romantic comedies. The joy of sitting down with your beloved, with a glass of wine, and enjoying a nice gentle “Rom-Com” together. The idea fills with me with horror. Neither I, nor my wife, are really “rom-com” people. And I much prefer lager to wine. But you get sent a movie to review and you have to sit down and watch it, regardless of whether it’s “your type of movie” or not. Which is why I found myself on Saturday night putting I Could Never Be Your Woman, a rom-com starring Michelle Pfieffer and Paul Rudd, into my DVD player and settling down with my wife with a lager in my hand to watch it. Hey, I’m not going to betray all my principles by having a glass of wine now am I!
Anyway, to the movie. It tells the story of Rosie, a single mother and Executive Producer and writer of hit situation comedy “You Go Girl”, which stars Stacey Dash as a teenager who gets into all sorts of scrapes. During the casting for a new role in “You Go Girl!” of a nerd Rosie meets Adam, a talented and very funny actor who not only walks straight into the role but also into her heart.
As Rosie is struggling with the age difference and is coping with the loss of her show as it is cancelled will love win out and see her happy?
What do you think!
Anyway, this is the first movie from Amy Heckerling, who gave the world Clueless, since 2000’s Loser and see’s her reunite with quite a lot of the cast of Clueless as she once again tackles the Rom-Com genre and, I have to say, this is a wonderfully funny movie.
Yep, I enjoyed this way more than I expected to. The cast is superb throughout with people like Stacey Dash sending up themselves and their casting as “young” characters in movies. For example Adam, who is played superbly by Paul Rudd, is meant to be a teenager but his character in the movie is 29 years old. Jon Lovitz pops up repeatedly in a reoccuring role as Rosies’ ex-husband and has some great moments, and there is a wealth of cameos throughout (”Heeeeeey” - I do love the Fonz!). But really this movie belongs to three people.
First, Michelle Pfieffer is superb as Rosie, as she battles against growing old and refuses to let life pass her by even though she has turned 40. Saoirse Ronan, who plays Rosies’ daughter Izzie, is also wonderful and could very well have a good career ahead of her as she plays the role to perfection here and, thankfully, never once comes across as annoying. And then there is Paul Rudd. I was already a fan of him from movies like 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up but here he is totally brilliant! His character is perfectly written and without a doubt has the funniest lines in the movie and he proves just how much of a good actor he is here.
The direction by Heckerling is very good throughout, with the movie moving along at a very fast pace but never feeling rushed and she comes out with some sublime moments of comedy during the movie.
There are also some very insightful swipes at Hollywood and childhood worries as Izzie struggles with her first attraction to a boy and puts his apparent lack of interest in her down to her weight, even though she is certainly not fat! And it’s moments like that that push this above the normal “fluffy” rom-com. There are some laugh out loud moments in the movie, and some wonderful satire that it would be a shame if this fell by the way side and was buried under the rest of the rom-com genre.
That’s not to say that it isn’t without it’s problems. The biggest, and to me the problem I encounter with pretty much every Rom-Com, is the resolution of the movie was a bit “meh”. All of a sudden we were at the end of the story and it was over before you could blink. Now, that’s not a huge detraction from the movie, in general, as up until that point it was great fun, it’s just a shame that it was such a weak ending for what had been, up until that point, a very enjoyable movie.
Special Features
Interviews With The Cast And Crew: Over half an hour of interviews with various members of the cast and crew as they talk about being involved in the movie, what it means to them etc etc. Pretty standard “talking heads” stuff really.
B-Roll Footage: Always nice to see B-roll footage, and this is quite a funny little collection.
All in all, this is a fun, if rather forgetable, Rom-Com which has a little more bite than most. If you’re looking for something to watch which doesn’t feature big explosions or people being mutilated, then this wouldn’t be a bad bet really. And if you are a fan of Rom-Coms then I whole heartedly recommend this movie to you.
7 Responses to “[DVD Review R2] I COULD NEVER BE YOUR WOMAN”
Ever so slightly more generous then me. Be honest, did you not think the whole “mother nature” stuff was a bit… well… wank?
/slaps head
Damn, I forgot to mention that!! Yeah, it was a bit strange! But it wasn’t that much of a distraction for me really.
Oh, it clunked bad enough for me like! Plus, all the Brit stars and the fake LA surroundings when it was shot on Pinewood in the UK.
Graham Norton *shudder*
WTF? I’ve NEVER heard of this film
DESPITE IT BEING REVIEWED TWICE ON THIS VERY SITE?!?
Seriously though… Yeah Kris, it’s got a really weird history attached to it where it was financially backed by some dodgy businessman trying to break into the movie industry and he started ****ing with Heckerling and the movie midway through production and the movie got shelved pretty instantaneously the minute filming stopped. There was fights to get postproduction done on it and so on and so forth and, for a while, it became known as this really great “lost” film that we’d never get to see. Pfieffer kept saying it was one of her “favourite performances”…
… But then it got junked to DVD in the US afer a 4 day obscuro-town cinema run, despite reasonably good reviews, and came to the UK as a Blockbuster Exclusive (from which I reviewed it - you should check out my review too!). It’s a good little movie, lovely performances, a few nice biting bits of Hollywood satire but it’s really nothing special!
I’d still check it out if you ever come across it on TV or your pay-per-view or whatever!
I also enjoyed this film, and it’s a nice surprise for those who discover it on DVD!
Michelle Pfieffer is number one to me! Not only is she THE most stunning actress in Hollywood, in my personal opinion, but she is the “IT” woman within the industry. She can do absolutely anything of any genre!
Yes, musicals too, GREASE 2 may be shit but she sure as hell isn’t shit in it!
lol
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