Review: Laws of Attraction
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007At first glance, Laws of Attraction is a typical romantic comedy. Guy and girl meet, they don’t get along, then they’re stuck together, then they fall in love. The difference here is in how the relationship is handled. This is not the standard RomCom. It’s got all the elements, including over-the-top secondary characters, but the way the lead characters (Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore) interact is much more real than in most movies of this type. You get the impression that these could be real people, not the cardboard cutouts we’re used to seeing on screen, despite the way it probably appeared on the page.
I give most of that credit to the director and actors. The script was okay, but not stupendous. I give it credit in that it uses a divorce lawyer who believes in marriage, and his point of view becomes a strong message in the film. The point is that you have to fight, and remain committed, through the rough times in a marriage. That’s a sensibility that is all too often forgotten in today’s world of instant gratification and “what have you done for me lately” attitudes.
I found it interesting that they cut two scenes that would have pulled the film back toward the typical RomCom category. Though both deleted scenes were good, if the director’s intent was, as I suspect, to keep it closer to reality and avoid the easy tricks, I think he made good choices in dropping them. One was the competitive race across the field to the castle that I could feel coming in the film, and was surprised when it didn’t arrive, and the other was the storybook Irish countryside ending. Both are included in the DVD as extras, and they were fun to watch and well done, but I really think the right choice was made in not choosing the easy path. I think the movie was better for it.
Unfortunately, despite how much I liked the overall tone and many individual scenes, something was off. I’m pretty sure it was the writing, or maybe the editing, but it just didn’t flow as well as I’d hoped. A few scenes seemed out of place, or forced in there, or just not stitched together cleanly enough. I can’t come up with any specific examples, but it just didn’t flow evenly.
I’d like to give it more, because I really liked the message and the lack of saccharine, but I have to stop at three stars.
Technorati Tags: Pierce Brosnan, Julianne Moore, romantic comedy, movie review, marriage, love, New York City, Ireland
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