It acknowledges the world it inhabits and never shies away from poking fun at itself.
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Sandwhiched somewhere between "Notting Hill" and "Pretty Woman" is "Love and Other Disasters," a romantic comedy with a level of awareness we haven´t seen on screen since the "Scream" films. Brit Emily Jackson (an Audrey Hepburn-esque Brittany Murphy) works at U. K. Vogue, lives with her best gay friend Peter (Matthew Rhys from "Brothers and Sisters") and maintains an on-again, off-again romance with James Wildstone (Elliot Cowan).
She is so intent on fixing Peter up with photographer's assistant Paolo (Santiago Cabrera) that she completely misses the forest for the trees. It turns out, and this is no spoiler, Paolo isn´t gay and actually thinks he´s in love with Jacks. But the Jacks/Paolo romance is only one of the stories revolving around the "l" word. All intersect and intertwine until, fortuitously, they meld together in the finale.
"Love and Other Disasters" is a new kind of rom com. It acknowledges the world it inhabits and never shies away from poking fun at itself. From numerous mentions of "Breakfast at Tiffany´s" to an opening and closing containing stage directions from a script, writer/director Alek Keshishian imbues each character with a wit we don´t see very often. Part of their charm, undoubtedly, is taken from the real life inspirations for each on screen personae. Keshishian admits, in the making of featurette, to using people from his own life to populate the movie. This artistic choice clearly helps him keep a tight leash on personality quirks and each individual storyline when they could have very easily gone off the rails into schtick-or worse.
Perhaps it´s a comment on the nature of movies or the hyper-awareness the characters possess, but Peter mocks Tallulah (Catherine Tate) watching "Notting Hill." He doesn´t care that she´s never see it before; no, she has no idea how these types of movies conclude. It´s mentioned several times in the form of "If this were a movie…" statements. They´re not done with a slick wink and nod to the audience; rather, it is organic conversation to these people, especially aspiring screenwriter Peter, based on their life experiences.
There is a tendency to play humor for the laughs instead of allowing it to be germane to the story. Does anyone actually believe our most slapstick characters exist in the real world? Think about it. Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison, the flamboyant Jack McFarlane…they are caricatures, working on stereotypes and on non-realistic levels. Here, the plot originates from the personalities on display, whether it be the low key Jacks to depressed life of the party Tallulah. These actors aren´t trying to be funny or endear themselves to us; they simply do it. This is why the movie works as well as it does: we sympathize with these people, not just the characters, prompting us to want each to succeed in their own way.
Jacks is the unquestionable center of the film, never too high and never too low. Her hands are evident on all the others, from setting up Peter and Paolo to steering ex James to Tallulah. Modeled, at least in part, after Hepburn, Murphy is a revelation, decadent, high class, charming, beautiful, smart, confident and yet vulnerable. All those adjectives could also be used to describe Holly Golightly in "Tiffany´s," a comparison everyone is striving for, I´m sure.
While the rest of the cast is rock solid, I must point to Catherine Tate for a moment. She chews up every single scene she appears in and, while she isn´t a dominant force in the production, Talullah is a welcome presence on screen due to her boorishness, her bluster. Tate plays the outspoken friend with relish, ably trading verbal jabs with her mother (Stephanie Beacham, an actress we don´t see nearly enough in America).
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[release]24095[/release]