I LOVE TROUBLE
A film review by Jon Ridge
Copyright 1994 Jon Ridge
CAST: Julia Roberts, Nick Nolte, Saul Rubinek, James Rebhorn, Robert Loggia DIRECTOR: Charles Shyer SCREENPLAY: Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer CINEMATOGRAPHY: John Lindley RUNNING TIME: 2:01 RELEASE: June 29, 1994
Julia Roberts walks into this film like a dream. Dressed in suit and skirt, her long legs and hips moving in perfect rhythm with a confident stride, she strolls smoothly through the cite of a train wreck, sparks a-flying, and into the life of rival reporter Peter Beckett (Nick Nolte). She's just what he envisions in a woman--beautiful, sexy and, more importantly, insecure enough to know less about what she does for a living than him. It's a tidy, engaging introduction to a movie that, unfortunately for these two talented stars, has no involving story to tell.
Writers Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer have given Roberts a character she can really sink her teeth into. She plays Sabrina Peterson, a cub reporter for the Chicago Globe, whose only apparent goal in life is to out-scoop the famous Peter Brackett. Perhaps it's a way of getting ahead in her own publishing firm, getting a reputation, or proving her independence--that she isn't just a pretty face on the job--that gives her such ravenous interest in a case involving some sort of hormone designed to make cows produce milk earlier than they need to. I LOVE TROUBLE isn't really about the investigation these columnists pursue--and shouldn't treat it with the importance this film does--but a subtle, light romantic comedy about two people who would seem to have absolutely nothing in common but the work and wind up more intimately involved than expected. The dialogue given them is sporadically snappy banter, and Roberts and Nolte breeze through it with the smiles and batting eyes of two veterans. What they do not need is a moronic, recycled subplot with murderers that will put them in danger at the film's apex. And yet, I LOVE TROUBLE is another in the long, long, long line of movies to emerge from Hollywood in recent years featuring potentially talented writers who naturally assume (based on what they've seen before them) they must give an audience what the industry can't seem to do without.
The clash between comic duo and suspense subtext couldn't work less than it does here. The continuous report being executed is uninteresting; the villains are helplessly un-written; the peril--including an elevator shaft and unsteady platforms--is boring. But all the while there is Julia Roberts (who looks great in a knit sweater and jeans). Having returned to the screen after two hectic years of personal unease, Roberts seems to have found an understanding of herself, and what it is that makes her a charismatic persona. Director Charles Shyer definitely knows what it is, and captures it in the best part of his picture: the grin, the eyes, the legs. We get a lot of it, as Nolte gazes at her in the beginning and never seems to take his eyes off her; a scene in which he peeps through a keyhole at Roberts' slender legs lets you know exactly what his character thinks of her own, and what we should all concentrate on more than anything. Even during PRETTY WOMAN and FLATLINERS, I can't remember ever enjoying watching Roberts talk in a movie more.
Nolte is his suave self, but he too cannot escape the irreparable doom this film has made for itself. It's completely predictable fluff, with mild comic touches here and there and barely a thing to remember it by. Julia Roberts is beautiful to look at, but that alone does not a movie make. Take note, you future screenwriters.
Rated PG CRITICAL RATING: ** (1/2)
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