Down With Love

 

Down With Love 2003

• Director: Peyton Reed
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Renée Zellweger, Ewan Macgregor, David Hyde Pierce, Sarah Paulson
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Renée Zellweger – The Greatest Showman, Logan/X-Men et al, Chappie, Les Misérables, Australia, The Prestige, The Fountain, Kate & Leopold
• Ewan Macgregor – Christopher Robin, Doctor Sleep, Trainspotting 2&1, American Pastoral, Our Kind of Traitor, Mortdecai, August Osage County, Jack the Giant Slayer, The Impossible, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Perfect Sense, The Ghost Writer, The Men Who Stare at Goats, The Island, Star Wars etc, Big Fish, Young Adam, Moulin Rouge, Little Voice, Velvet Goldmine, A Life Less Ordinary, Brassed Off, Shallow Grave
• Sarah Paulson – 12 Years a Slave
• Why? Zellweger and Macgregor.
• Seen: 2 December 2022 

       If anyone can make a romantic comedy palatable it’s M+Z. Otherwise I tend to keep a great distance between me and rom-coms.

       NYC. 1962. Barbara Novak (RZ) has written a book and has come to NYC to meet her editor Vikki (Paulson). And the men on the board, who refuse to promote this feminist manifesto in which adorable, pink-clad, hip-twitching cutesy Barbara proclaims that women should be equal at work and enjoy sex without love.

       Vikki sets up an interview with male chauvinist hot reporter Catcher Block (EMac), who wiggles out of it time and again. When her book becomes a global bestseller he changes his mind but now she’s not interested. And then…

       Oh never mind the story. This film is perfectly dreadful and that’s the whole point. It’s a biting but affectionate parody of the rom-coms of the 60’s, and love, and sex, and gender stereotypes. It’s silly, and clever, and likeable. 

3 ½* of 5