MUSIC FROM ANOTHER ROOM A film review by Matt Williams
RATING: * out of * * * *
Is love at first sight possible? The romantic comedy, Music From Another Room would like you to believe so. However, it doesn't make a very convincing argument.
Danny (Jude Law) has met his true love. It happened when he was five years old...he helped to deliver a newborn named Anna Swan, and knew that one day they would marry.
Flash forward many years. Danny accidentally stumbles across the Swan family again and sets about integrating himself into their lives. The mother of the family (Brenda Blethyn) remembers him, but the rest of the family is not so sure of his intentions. Particularly when his feelings for Anna become known.
Anna (Gretchen Mol), you see, has grown up and is now engaged to be married to Eric (Jon Tenney). She has also turned out to be rather cold and remote. Why Danny spends the entire movie chasing after her is a complete mystery.
At least Anna's family is more interesting, in a contrived sort of way. Her sister Nina (Jennifer Tilly) is blind and fearful of the world. Her brother Billy (Jeremy Piven) has some fidelity issues with his wife. And her sister Karen (Martha Plimpton) is a shameless feminist.
In the entire movie, Nina is the most interesting character, although her storyline never pans out in a believable way. Jennifer Tilly is able to endow her character with the spark of life that is absent from Anna.
Music From Another Room is painfully overwritten. The stilted dialogue that fills the film is nothing anyone would actually say. But that's ok...hardly any of the film's scenes are believable anyway. The film's script is definitely its weakest link.
So that leaves us with characters we don't care anything about, blabbering nonsense, all the while doing incredulous things. Hardly an auspicious set of ingredients for a romantic comedy.
None of the cast give terribly endearing performances. Jennifer Tilly and Jude Law are the standouts in a rather uninspiring collection.
Music From Another Room tries to be a light and whimsical romantic comedy, with a little dysfunctional family humor tossed in for topical spice. However, while not a complete disaster, it's rarely comic and hardly romantic.
Copyright 1998 Matt Williams
- Matt Williams (matt@cinematter.com) Reviewer for Cinematter: http://www.cinematter.com Home of over 500 reviews, and information on over 600 upcoming releases
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