140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW
If you absolutely MUST watch a Hugh Grant rom-com – like your relationship and/or life depend on it – still skip this one…try About A Boy
Spoiler-free Movie Review of The Rewrite:
I watched this very predictable looking film for exactly one reason: it showed up on a list of newly released Blu-rays with a release year of 2015. I try to review recent films whenever possible, and since I don’t get to the movies as often as I’d like, at least for non-kids movies, I usually rely on stuff I can watch at home. This necessarily means that my reviews are always a bit late, even with the ridiculously short intervals between theatrical release and home video release.
So when I see something available to rent or stream with a recent date, particularly toward the beginning of the calendar year, I usually try to watch it. I completely realize how flawed this policy is, by the way. Pictures that are available for home video in the first quarter of the year they were released in are almost always dogs and often never got more than a token theatrical release.
The worst part about The Rewrite? The listing was wrong. The movie was released abroad in 2014. It never even got a theatrical release stateside. So that was the end of the one potentially redeeming feature of The Rewrite, that I’d get to add a 2015 review to the site.
But surely there was something worthwhile about the film? I mean, look at the cast: Hugh Grant, Marisa Tomei, J.K. Simmons, Allison Janney, Chris Elliot. These are good names and good actors. Yes, but they have something else in common; they aren’t terribly choosy. All have a long track record of dogs. My impression of these actors is that they are hardworking professionals who know that it’s a job and you need to keep swimming. I may be wrong, but that’s my take, and I’m not suggesting that there is anything in the world wrong with that outlook – it’s commendable. I’m merely suggesting that their presence in a film should never be taken as an indicator of the quality of the project by itself.
The Rewrite, which in all honesty should probably have been called The Remake, finds Hugh Grant playing screenwriter Keith Michaels, a Hollywood talent who had tremendous early success followed by a period of failure and is now burned out and cynical as he tries to rediscover the magic of his earlier career. It would be in poor taste to suggest that Hugh Grant is, therefore, playing Hugh Grant…
Actually, cheap shots aside, Grant is an actor I quite like in spite of his tendency to just keep playing himself, or rather, a version of the same character. Grant is probably not the character he is typecast as, any more than Lee Marvin or any other character actor. But he’s played the aloof, cynical, womanizing cad so often and so well that it sure feels like he is…
Out of work and luck, screenwriter Michaels takes the last available gig open to him: teaching screenwriting at respected Binghamton University in New York. Here he will meet cute with working mother Holly Carpenter (Marisa Tomei), fill his class with attractive co-eds, one of whom he’s shagging (Bella Heathcoate as Karen) and get another shot at success courtesy of one of his students (Clem, played by Stephen Kaplan from the funny Bart Got A Room).
The Rewrite is the vision of the talented Marc Lawrence, who after getting his start with the beloved 80’s sitcom Family Ties went on to carry the torch for 2000’s rom-coms, writing & directing three consecutive Sandra Bullock films. The Rewrite is his FOURTH consecutive Hugh Grant picture. Their first picture together was 2007’s Music and Lyrics, co-starring Drew Barrymore. The Rewrite is essentially the same movie as Music and Lyrics, enough so that it led me to wonder whether it is possible to plagiarize yourself…
The Rewrite is a lazy, unimaginative and derivative riff on the same theme that Grant has been playing for too long. J.K. Simmons has a nice little role that’s fun, and while the story is uninspired, Lawrence writes great dialogue and there are some nice little bits in there. It’s not awful or anything, just lightweight – perfectly fine for streaming.
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Pass
The Representation Test Score: C (6 pts)
(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)
| Main Cast | Marisa Tomei Holly Carpenter, J.K. Simmons Dr. Lerner, Allison Janney Mary Weldon, Hugh Grant Keith Michaels |
| Rating | o.Al. |
| Release Date | Fri 13 Feb 2015 UTC |
| Director | Marc Lawrence |
| Genres | Comedy, Romance |
| Plot | An Oscar-winning writer in a slump leaves Hollywood to teach screenwriting at a college on the East Coast, where he falls for a single mom taking classes there. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 107 |
| Tagline | |
| Writers | Marc Lawrence (written by) |
| Year | 2014 |
