The Rewrite (2015)

There were a lot of really good ideas in this movie and practically everyone of them fell flat either from lackluster delivery or just plain mishandling. Hugh Grants character had no focus, he seemed tired and old, and not at all the result of his circumstances. This is the 4th movie the Director and Grant have worked on and each one gets more and more of a phoned in event, and Grant is obviously capable of much more. I can only assume that he was directed to deliver this character, which is just a phone in Hugh Grant really, but Grant is most certainly capable of reinventing himself as he has done on many occasions so far, and this would have been a perfect opportunity to do so again as the narrative of his character is dubious and morally askew at best. He goes from having a relationship with a student at the start to aiming for a relationship with an older student at the end. Both illegal for his position as teacher. What a character development curve. And I didn't mind the politically incorrect nature of it all if they had actually followed through on it better, but they Hollywood rom comm'd it right through from the cheesy music to the slow paced delivery. I could have really played on the Meta nature of evens, reflecting Grant's passing light and the writer's own checkered history of success but it fumbles it all and makes 1/4 the impact it could have. And poor old Hugh Grant, moved like his joints ached and he was 20 years older than he is.

Stories about writers who are having difficulty putting pen to paper are a dime a dozen, but I found this one charming. Hugh Grant plays the fallow screenwriter who follows the adage, "Those who can't...teach." His life is a total failure on all fronts, but he manages to survive thanks to a droll wit and his refusal to lay down and die.Marisa Tomei plays the object of his distracted attention with her usual aplomb. Without committing to anything, she becomes the rudder to his floundering ship, with insight and a tender recognition for his hidden value. But it is Grant who makes this film something special, imbuing every scene with an honesty that makes the story enjoyable. Here he is not so glib as he is dealing with the trials of every moment.This is a sleeper I must recommend.

Yes, I liked it. More than I thought I would; much more. I am not the hugest fan of Hugh Grant, but this film played well to both his strengths and weaknesses as an actor and, well, to the background of his life, shall we say. I salute his ability to accept his strengths and weaknesses in accepting the part. The film suggested that, apart from the louche aspects of English writer Keith Michael's life, the part he plays, the chap has a heart and deserves redemption. He just needed the right girl to awaken it and also to awaken his inspiration. He deserved that filip both as character and person. Marisa Tomei was never lovelier than in her girl-next-door role. It is a pity we haven't seen more of her on screen in the meantime. So Hollywood but I love it! There is this dismissive attitude to feel-good movies, as they are called. But I love 'em. Those that succeed,as this does, have this pleasant, positive and life- affirming aura about them. Hollywood's greatest invention, along with the Western. Shakespeare's King Lear is for manic-depressives!In this film, miracles can happen in middle America, that great space in middle of the country that the elites of both sides of the country fly over without caring about it much. But this is the engine of the American economy and the American soul. And writing this review at this time, there are additional political resonances here, are there not?This is a light but philosophical comedy and there is nothing wrong with that, I say. But, to its credit, it does suggest the harsher, harder side of Hollywood. The film didn't have to lay it on the line but I liked that it suggested. at least, the more abrasive quality of reality, particularly the reality of a Hollywood writer who fears he may be past his best. But also, as I said, that the American dream prevails, in the artistic imagination if not always in real life, is an important proposition of the genre. And I say that as someone not American but someone who speaks with Hugh Grant's accent if, enviously, not being quite as good looking as him!Film, or movies, if you prefer, is still the vibrant artistic genre of our time. Modern Western music, architecture, sculpture and painting, seem to be in decline. We needs must take our comfort where we may.Two hours emphatically not wasted.And not to forget Alison Janney, the adversarial mid-West professor, I love her from The West Wing. Pity we haven't seen more of her on- screen in the meantime.

Hugh Grant plays Keith Michaels, a raffish LA screenwriter who won an Oscar for his screenplay some years ago but his career has struggled since. Whatever he writes is not what the Hollywood producers are looking for, they want to see movies with a kick ass action girl.Estranged from his family, with rejected screenplays and short of cash his agent gets him a job teaching screen writing at a small university just off New York.As soon as he arrives he has a sexual relationship with one of his class student Karen (Bella Heathcote.) At a party he offends stuck up Professor Mary Weldon (Allison Janney) by insulting Jane Austen. He also has no interest in teaching his class or reading their fledgling scripts.However he soon finds inspired to teach by the work his class has produced and especially by one of his nerdy male student who produces a promising screenplay. He also falls for a mature student Holly (Marisa Tomei.) Keith who is arrogant even aloof at first decides it is important that he sticks with his class although Professor Weldon wants to see the back of him.There is nothing much original about the film, it has an easy charm, an amiable time waster and a good cast rounded off by JK Simmons as the department head.