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Benjamin Wood
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Score: 4/5

Hugh Grant has gotten a pretty bad rap when it comes to his on-screen persona. Most of this criticism comes, and perhaps rightly so, from the fact that Grant acts almost exclusively in romantic comedies, and those movies that weren't romantic comedies failed miserably (I can say that, at the time of this writing, I have not seen a Hugh Grant move that was not a "romcom"). However, to immediately dismiss an actor for knowing his strength and sticking with it has always seemed harsh to me. Hugh Grant is no Johnny Depp, but he's aware of this, and he can generally make the movies he's in at least likeable.

Drew Barrymore, similarly, has also seemed to stick with romantic comedies, although she has attempted to branch out a little more (Donnie Darko and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind being the two that stand out for me), but the past few years have seen an abundance of romantic comedies, and some very bad ones at that. In fact, I'd even go far to say that I enjoy Hugh Grant much more than Drew Barrymore when it comes to the romantic comedy...but that could be my penchant for caustic sarcasm rearing its ugly head.

Music & Lyrics, therefore, is probably going to be a "love it or hate it" type of movie. Grant plays former pop star Alex Fletcher (ironically of a band named simply "Pop!"), who has been reduced to performing at county fairs and class reunions in front of screaming middle aged women. He finally gets a break, however, when his agent, Chris (Brad Garrett), tells him that current superstar Cora Corman (newcomer Haley Bennett), being a huge fan of Pop when she was a child, wants Alex to write her new hit song. Alex finds himself in a bind, for he was never much of a lyricist, and needs to find a partner to put words to his melodies. That's where Sophie Fisher (Barrymore), the girl who waters his plants, enters the picture. Sophie has a natural talent for writing poetry, and after persistent pleading from Alex, she relents and decides to help him write the song for Cora.

So far, seems somewhat bland, doesn't it? Music & Lyrics doesn't shine because of the plot, but rather what the movie is able to do with the plot. The opening music video for Pop!'s smash hit, "Pop goes my heart," is pure eighties-throwback-goodness. Grant and Barrymore have great chemistry, and both of them seem to be on their A-game for this movie. Grant's deadpan one-liners are as strong as they've been in any of his movies, and Barrymore plays off of them very well. The main weakness of the movie, besides the conventional plot, is Bennett, whose Cora is bland and annoying. Although a satire of the vapid personalities of modern pop stars, the scenes with her seemed to drag the energy down to unmanageable levels, and neither Grant or Barrymore are able to recover it until she has left the screen.

Just because movies are derivative does not mean that they are automatically bad. Yes, Music & Lyrics' story plays out like any other romantic comedy, but has the good fortune to have better than normal dialogue, and great performances from its two leads. It had no pretense of being a "great" movie: no Oscar hopes, no strive to be remembered as one of the best movies of 2007. And that's okay. I don't go enter a romantic comedy hoping to be blown away. I go in hoping to laugh, hoping to have an enjoyable 90 or so minutes, and come out smiling. On that front, Music & Lyrics is a definite winner.

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