Prismark10
Writer & Director James L Brooks has a very sure touch when it comes to movies. I'll do anything was conceived as an old fashioned musical and parody of actor's lifestyles and film clichés.Test audiences were not impressed with the film and at the time musical films were out of fashion. I presume the songs were actually rubbish which tends to be the case with a lot of musical films.Re-cut and re-edited, this is now a straight story with Nick Nolte, playing Matt Hobbs, a once promising actor who has not managed to get a regular acting gig in some time, ends up driving around an arrogant film producer (Albert Brooks).Things take a turn when his ex-wife dumps their daughter Jeannie on Matt for what he thinks is for a few weeks but turns out to be longer as she is off to jail. His daughter is used to getting her own way and he is not used to fatherhood.His career may have some brightness as he gets friendly with with attractive production assistant (Joely Richardson) who has a script idea and thinks Matt could be the lead actor.The film was hampered from the start with its production troubles. Nick Nolte does well as a down on his luck actor with a brat of daughter and trying to bond with her whilst dealing with machinations of the film industry.Where Brooks succeeded so well when he turned his eye on TV news with Broadcast News, the story here is not strong enough and although the actors try hard the film comes off as hollow.
tedg
Spoilers herein.There's a remarkably intelligent film hidden in here. I love watching old Welles films and trying to imagine the parts that the studios hacked out. And so here. The original idea was to have a deeply self-aware film, moreso than `The Player.' It was to have leveraged the shift inherent in a film musical : at some times, the audience is invited to see the story as representative of life, and at other times as representative of a show. Brooks puts tons of this stuff in `The Simpsons' and one can see the notion in his other TeeVee projects as well.But as I gather, this was actually supposed to be intelligent. Prince at this point was into self-referential songs and apparently increased the folding of an already baroque structure of who's looking at who. But (as with Welles), the studio financiers thought the paying audience was too dumb for all that, so brought in script doctor Elaine May (She of `Ishtar,' but nonetheless famously valuable as an invisible fixer).She straightened this film out so that a moron could understand it. Now it is not about the film business, but an ordinary sop about a dad discovering his precocious daughter. But you can see the joints where clever stuff might have been and the notion that parenting is a performance.They have kept one memorable Nolte moment. He is preparing to transform to a role. Watch how he changes, and also plays the meta-actor managing that change, and at the same time plays Nolte creating all three. It is his finest moment on film. I wonder if we will ever see the original version?Ted's Rating -- 2 of 4: Has some interesting elements.
Bill Davis
This is an excellent movie with interesting, well-drawn characters, especially that of complicated little girl. Nolte gives one of his great performances as the sensitive actor-father. This movie didn't get the attention it deserved when it came out, because it had become known that it was originally planned as a musical, but the musical numbers were cut out after audience testing -- which was ironic, since the movie had many references to audience-testing movies. They could have turned all that on its ear by having a closing-credits sequence with the producers audience testing the movie and deciding to PUT IN musical numbers, and then running excerpts of the excised musical numbers. The critics would have been confused as to whether it had really ever been planned to be a musical in the first place, and it would have brilliantly augmented the subject-matter of the movie.
renaldo and clara
This is one of those 'greater than the sum of its parts' movie, where you can't quite put your finger on why it's so great, but it just is. The set of this movie must've motivated these actors to beyond their usual performances..........maybe because the script is so great(they all get their shots at character development..... I can think of 5.) There's Nick Nolte, I've never DISliked him, but his physique combined with his sweet fatherly attitude makes for the perfect combination; it makes him very attractive. Joely Richardson I've only seen in one other movie, but she keeps you interested in her character all the way through, however quirky, weird, or whimsical. Nolte's daughter (Wright) is SO believable as the spoiled little rich girl, brought up by man-hater Tracy Ullman (!)'s character as mom. The two other characters are supporting; one is that lady who does Marge Simpson's voice, and her love interest. All these characters develop and learn. This film also ironically gives insight into the film industry, and how truly unglamorous Hollywood can be. Nick Nolte must cry in a room full of people withOUT the director even being there, a group of ladies who work in casting are asked, when deciding yay-or nay on this actor, if they would sleep with him.
But in the end, it stays true to its source, meaning it doesn't look completely down at Hollywood or anything else. It's just a really adorable feel-good movie.Did I mention adorable?-Sep
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