HEFE'S REVIEW OF:
AMERICA'S SWEETHEARTS (2001)

OPENING THOUGHTS

    I am not usually a big fan of romantic comedies, and when I had first saw the trailers for this film, it looked to be standard boring rom-com fare. It also didn't help that the movie was starring irritating Billy Crystal, horse-mouth Julia Roberts, snobby Catherine Zeta-Jones, and boring John Cusack. The supporting cast was the only glimmer of hope that I was clinging to.

ACTING

    CATHERINE ZETA-JONES wants you to believe that she isn't a bitch, but that she just plays one on TV. Well I'm not buying it, I have always got the impression from watching her in interviews and what not that she is a big fat fake phony. As a matter of fact, I imagine that the character she plays in this film is remarkably similar to her real-life persona, except of course that in real-life she likes old wieners.
    JOHN CUSACK was probably the best and most surprising person of the four main actors listed above. His character came across as crazy sometimes, but it was a lovable crazy. He was the only one of the four who seemed, quasi-normal. By this I mean he was believably imperfect without seeming like he was trying to play a caricature of someone.
    HANK AZARIA was by far the best part about this movie. He was definitely playing a caricature, which normally I hate, but in this case worked wonderfully. His ridiculous accent was like some sort of miracle, it was like this shining light of entertainment surrounded by a world of mediocrity. Ok maybe that is going a little overboard, I guess what I am trying to say is that he is pretty much the only person who made me laugh and I wish his part was bigger.
    THE SUPPORTING CAST was actually not to bad either, both Christopher Walken and Stanley Tucci put in good performances, however their parts were sadly even smaller than that of Hank Azaria's. Julia Roberts was as boring as ever, and Billy Crystal was as irritating and full himself as usual. I think that if the actors playing smaller parts switched spots with the actors playing the large ones, this would have been a much better movie.

DIRECTION AND SCRIPT

    JOE ROTH broke an eleven year streak of not directing films just so he could make this movie. You would think after that much of a break he would have come charging out of the gates and blew his pent up load of imagination all over the big screen, but that just didn't happen. Everything about his direction was average. The only positive thing I can say about the film is that it was relatively fast-paced for a romantic-comedy.
    BILLY CRYSTAL and PETER TOLAN actually wrote a surprisingly good script. Overall I liked the story, I enjoy watching movies poke fun at how silly people in Hollywood are. That being said it has been done better in films like Get Shorty. That doesn't mean there wasn't things I didn't like in this flick. I liked the majority of the characters, and the dialogue was a lot funnier than most movies in this genre. Still though, the movie was made in an effort to make sure it got a PG-13 rating instead of doing whatever it takes for the movie to be funny. Had they gone a bit further I think this film would have been much funnier.

THE VERDICT

    This is a solid effort and was much better than probably about 80 % of the romantic comedies out there. It's worth seeing once, but is probably not one worth repeated viewings. The supporting cast was much more talented and interesting to watch than the stars of the movie, but their parts were not big enough to make it great.
 
 

RATING: C +

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