Hey folks, Harry here... What sort of person doesn't love MATRIX RELOADED but loves DOWN WITH LOVE... well a scurvy seaman and a fat sellout, that's who... Here's Quint....
Ahoy squirts... So it's official. Ewan McGregor owns the fucking earth. I saw DOWN WITH LOVE just a few hours ago and absolutely fell in love with the movie. The movie has charm, it has laughs, it has romance and manages to wrap it all in a purely entertaining whole.
A lot of props go to Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellweger for their chemistry and note perfect performances. They captured the spirit and the lighthearted feeling of those great sex romps of the '50s and '60s. I must admit that I'm not very well versed in those films, but I have seen a few and dug what I saw. DOWN WITH LOVE actually put me in the mood to go check out a few of the classics I haven't seen...
Anyway this movie will be torn apart. As much as I hate to say it a lot of people just won't get the humor. It's wink-wink with a reason. It's over the top, the dialogue and situations are corny, but it all fits into this 1963 world. Believe it or not, it's at the same time confident and serious about the world it's in and totally over the top and tongue in cheek. I don't know how it works, but it works like a charm.
For those who don't know, the story is about an author, Barbara Novak (played by Renee Zellweger) who writes a book called Down With Love, a sort of self help meets radical women's liberation book that takes off like a bat outta hell. Every woman in the world reads the book (as shown in a fantastically hilarious montage) and starts to drop their housewife status, throwing all the men in the world into a confused state.
Ewan McGregor's Catcher Block (just a tip of the iceberg of the terrific innuendo that flutters about during the film) is a lady's man, a man's man, a man about town. Handsome, charming... got the ultra cool '60s bachelor pad and a different woman on his arm every night. He pisses off Barbara Novak early on in the film (over the phone) and she makes it her mission to shun him on every occasion.
His name becomes mud. The sales of DOWN WITH LOVE all but kill his sexcapades and he takes it personally, vowing to bring down Barbara Novak by forcing her to fall in love with him. If he can make her do that, then the woman of the world will get back in their places and it'll once more be safe for a lady's man, a man's man, a man about town.
This movie is utterly, utterly charming. I love how they incorporate all the trademarks of this era of cinema! They even have the old 20th Century Fox Logo followed by a title card saying A CINERAMA RELEASE... Of course the Viacom or some shit logo pops up and ruins the moment afterwards, but at least the effort was made. The colors all pop, the acting is pretty spot on... the reactions and structure of the jokes are perfect. Hell, they even do a beautiful rear screen projection job during one taxi ride.
Ewan McGregor can do no wrong. He's one of my absolute favorite actors working today and it's film choices like DOWN WITH LOVE that put him that high on my favorite list. It's a crime, A CRIME that McGregor is not playing LUPIN in HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN. David Thewlis my ass...
Sorry about that. It's no secret that I loved MOULIN ROUGE with all my heart, again thanks greatly to Ewan McGregor's performance and chemistry with Nicole Kidman. McGregor is the best choice Lucas has made in the last 6 years, hands down. He's on one helluva role.
For proof of that, let me just relate a story of tonight's theatre experience. I was sitting on the first row of a Cinemark Multiplex, which means I was about 10 feet below the bottom of the screen. Sitting behind me were these 3 girls, who had to have at the oldest 15 and good god... Every time Ewan McGregor would take off his shirt (which he does often, another great wink-wink nod to glory days of Rock Hudson) there would be a collective and almost orgasmic sigh from behind me. At one point, McGregor says, "Are you ready?" refering to sex in the film and one of them says very loudly, "I'm ready!" It's good to see the youth of today cooing over somebody besides Justin Timberlake. Like I said, Ewan's on a roll.
Same can be said with Renee Zellweger. She does a fantastic job as well, even though I think Ewan really steals the show.
OK. Time to get to the supporting cast. David Hyde Pierce is a riot as Catcher Block's editor at KNOW MAGAZINE. I've never really followed Frasier, but have never really had any sort of problem with any of the cast. Pierce just rules as the incredibly shy straight man... If you can call him that.
Sarah Paulson is likewise a joy to watch. She plays Zellweger's editor, one of the first to buy into the "sex a la carte" theory put forth by DOWN WITH LOVE. The way she toys with Pierce is priceless.
In the end, I think it's the blatant and supreme innuendo that make this movie gel. Every second there seems to be another sexual reference that is so prevalent from that era of film when you weren't allowed to talk frankly or the ratings board had you. The innuendo is so prevalent that DOWN WITH LOVE is rated PG-13 ALMOST SOLELY FOR INNUENDO! I won't spoil any of the fantastic lines here, but trust me. They're classic.
Go see the movie, for god's sake. When THE MATRIX is sold out, take your honey to see DOWN WITH LOVE. It's a sweet movie, it's a funny movie and above all it's a greatly entertaining movie. Shit, the awesome and inventive split screen scene alone is worth the ticket price.
That's it for me on this one, squirts. I'll back soon. 'Til that day, this is Quint bidding you all a fond farewell and adieu.
-Quint
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