A LIFE LESS ORDINARY
A Film Review by James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 6.5 Alternative Scale: **1/2 out of ****
United States, 1997 U.S. Release Date: 10/24/97 (wide) Running Length: 1:42 MPAA Classification: R (Profanity, violence) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Cameron Diaz, Holly Hunter, Delroy Lindo, Ian Holm,
Dan Hedaya, Stanley Tucci, Tony Shalhoub, Ian McNeice,
Maury Chaykin
Director: Danny Boyle
Producer: Kevin MacDonald
Screenplay: John Hodge
Cinematography: Brian Tufano
Music: David Arnold
U.S. Distributor: 20th Century Fox
A LIFE LESS ORDINARY, the latest collaboration from the TRAINSPOTTING/SHALLOW GRAVE team (director Danny Boyle, writer John Hodge, producer Kevin MacDonald, and star Ewan McGregor), is a movie less ordinary. And that's part of its problem. The film is so focused on being quirky and unusual that it turns into a cliché of everything offbeat. From start to finish, A LIFE LESS ORDINARY feels like a group of sometimes amusing, sometimes clever, and sometimes tedious skits forced to fit together.
The film is part romantic comedy, part caper movie, and part road movie. In fact, it's a lot like TRUE ROMANCE with the violence toned down. Or, if you prefer, EXCESS BAGGAGE meets RAISING ARIZONA. Still, while there's a lot to admire about A LIFE LESS ORDINARY, chief of which is its daring, I found myself sitting through the film thinking that I should have been getting more out of it -- I wasn't laughing hard enough at the comic bits, gripping the seat arms tightly enough during the exciting parts, or smiling enough during the idiosyncratic sequences. Frankly, although I admire the craft that Boyle displays in his first studio effort (which is much like the technique he previously showed in SHALLOW GRAVE and TRAINSPOTTING), the film left me cool and strangely dissatisfied.
The film starts off in Boyle's satiric version of heaven, where everything is gloriously white, but God has decided to execute some new corporate strategies. It seems that the angels haven't been doing their jobs very well when it comes to bringing men and women together for lifelong commitments, so, using Gabriel (Dan Hedaya) as the bearer of bad tidings, the Big Man decides to implement a few new "incentive schemes." The first pair to work under these conditions are O'Reilly (Holly Hunter) and Jackson (Delroy Lindo), who are sent to Earth to bring together a janitor named Robert (Ewan McGregor) and a spoiled heiress named Celine (Cameron Diaz). If they fail, they stay in permanent exile. That's the incentive.
As things develop, Robert and Celine meet when he kidnaps her as a form of revenge against her father (Ian Holm), who fired him. But Robert, an all-around nice guy who is in over his head, doesn't have a clue what to do with a hostage, and Celine, who starts out giving him lessons in "Kidnapping 101", ends up running the show. Of course, as time passes, we recognize that their heated arguments are hiding a deeper, more lasting emotion. Meanwhile, O'Reilly and Jackson, desperate to get back to heaven, show up as a couple of bounty hunters who begin to get ideas that, if they're stuck on Earth, maybe stealing the ransom might be a good way to spend their permanent exile in style.
Boyle has tried his hardest to fashion a romantic comedy that doesn't follow the expected formulas. "No cliches!" Robert screams at one point, and this seems to be the director's philosophy. Ironically, by swinging the pendulum so far into the realm of the absurd and violent, Boyle has stumbled into Tarantino/Coen Brothers territory, and, seen through the prism of all the copycat features that have sprung up in this area, huge chunks of A LIFE LESS ORDINARY seem like a retread. At least the ending, which is done using clay animation, is refreshingly unexpected.
The film is arguably most successful as a comedy. Several scenes, including one in a phone booth where Celine gives Robert lessons on how to demand a ransom, are funny. Boyle has always had a penchant for dark humor, and it's perhaps more evident here than in either SHALLOW GRAVE or TRAINSPOTTING. As a romance, however, A LIFE LESS ORDINARY is dead in the water. Cameron Diaz is a blast as Celine, the platinum-blonde queen of bad fashion and a worse attitude, but McGregor is barely interesting as the meek Robert. Together, these two generate no chemistry. There's more heat between O'Reilly and Jackson. And, speaking of the angels, Hunter and Lindo do fine, intentionally over- the-top jobs as these two. Hunter is especially noteworthy, playing a smoking, tobacco-chewing tough who waves a gun around like she means business. Maybe she's the reason I thought of RAISING ARIZONA.
The supporting cast is populated by an interesting group of performers. In fact, A LIFE LESS ORDINARY features a mini-BIG NIGHT reunion, with Ian Holm, Stanley Tucci (as a dentist wooing Celine), and Tony Shalhoub (as a sympathetic bartender) all making appearances. Atom Egoyan favorite Maury Chaykin, who is rarely in a "normal" movie, has a part as a backwoodsman who is curious about Robert and Celine's activities in an abandoned cabin near his home. And Dan Hedaya plays the archangel Gabriel like a grumbling, put-upon representative of middle-management.
When it comes to love stories, no matter how lavishly they're adorned with auxiliary elements, I'd rather see a worn-out story with characters who really connect than something eccentric with a leading pair who are poles apart. Sadly, A LIFE LESS ORDINARY is the latter. However, while it's not the most successful romance, the movie does contain enough elements of interest to intrigue, if not always involve, the viewer. A LIFE LESS ORDINARY is fun -- it's just less fun and more familiar than I had expected.
Copyright 1997 James Berardinelli
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@mail.cybernex.net
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