Coyote Ugly
There's been so many movies about dreamers who have to face reality and can't deal with it. "Coyote Ugly" is kind of the opposite - the heroine shoots for the stars and makes it without trying very hard. Original idea, but the story's execution is not.
Piper Perabo stars as Violet - a young girl from New Jersey who writes songs but has a bad case of stagefright. She figures she'll succeed if she moves to New York City and gives a tape of her music to some producer there and things will happen. There's quite a few scenes of Violet getting rejected over and over and they're quite funny. You're either laughing at how naive she is or how naive the filmmakers are to think we'll sympathize with her. She's not a ditz, but it's really hard to believe anyone could think getting a record contract is as easy as walking into a building and asking the receptionist to give the company president a tape.
Eventually Violet ends up getting an "audition" to work in the all-girl bar "Coyote Ugly." It's a wild bar with some very sexy barmaids who dance on the bar and set things on fire and spray the crowd with water and basically act like strippers only they keep their clothes on. Twice Violet screws up and twice she redeems herself to the amazement of Lil (Maria Bello), the owner and manager who's kind of a prick for the position she's in.
The middle act of the film centers around Violet's work at the bar and her developing relationship with Kevin (Adam Garcia) - an Australian guy who keeps flattering and impressing her but never opens up about himself. The two make a cute couple until Kevin gets into a scrum at the bar trying to protect Violet from some drunken horny guys.
That's the thing with romantic comedies - they just can't stay cute and funny, there has to be that element of drama that's rather unnecessary. More dramatic subplots keep popping up throughout the second half including a serious conflict between Violet and her father (John Goodman) and her attempt conquer her stagefright. Do I really need to elaborate on the third act and the ending?
That's what bogs the movie down - we can see through it and easily make predictions. The characters need more background and color, the screenplay needs less plot cliches and more scenes of pure dialogue and direction needs more focus. What we end up with is merely satisfactory.
GRADE: B-
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