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scottwblack [ 5.5 ]
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Unexceptional homage to early sixties romantic comedies that relies too much on Austin Powers-esque sight gags and double entendres. Lead actor Ewan McGregor is clearly superior to the pedestrian material.
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astrosheil [ 7.5 ]
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This movie really took me back. I used to love the old Doris Day-Rock Hudson romantic comedies. Only this one was better and classier. Renee actually out Dorissed Day. However, Ewan seemed a little too young for her. In all, the movie was a brightly packaged bit of nostalgia. It reflected a very superficial time when everything had to look good even if it wasn't good. And men and women played a lot of games about sex and love.
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DokBrowne [ 9.5 ]
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It was a rocky first couple of minutes there, but as soon as Ewan McGregor showed up, and I got used to Peyton Reed's thick sense of style, I was enraptured. I loved everything about this movie: Ewan McGregor, David Hyde Pierce, Sarah Paulson, even Renee Zellweger, who I've been hard on as of late ("Chicago", bah). That surprise soliloquy of hers at the end was mighty impressive. The solid-color-coordinated sets, the dialogue so happy with wordplay (the screenplay has loads of fun with an exchange involving the names of two rival magazines, Now and Know, in which every familiar use of both words in their regular adverb and verb forms, respectively, is played upon), the twinkling, omnipresent musical score that accompanies every movement and beat (down to Renee's wink), the cute split screen tricks and witty scene transitions and just the way everyone (especially Ewan) glides around the screen with a playful grace, like they're dancing around each other all the time. It's magical. With the sound off, this movie could easily pass for a musical, which makes perfect sense for the snappy number Renee and Ewan share over the end credits, and actually reminded me of an interesting tidbit, that both of them were the leads in the two and only two major motion picture musicals of the 21st century (and of this apparently newborn era of the musical, or so I hope, anyway), so their pairing here makes a sort of beautiful karmic sense. For his part, Ewan is magnificent; I was simultaneously swooning to death over him and giggling uncontrollably like a school girl whenever he was on screen. Beaming that big smile of his and waltzing to and fro to every meticulously choreographed sequence (and it's exceptional how director Reed manages to incorporate not only a lavish and fine attention to visual detail AND a snappy written rapport between characters, but also have them flutter elegantly about as they do so, so that you're watching them dance in a movie that isn't even a musical on top of listening to them banter with the ingenious dexterity of Abbott & Costello and savoring all the gorgeous art direction and set design - all this not to mention the pleasing and no doubt painstakingly orchestrated score and the gorgeousness of all the actors and the appreciation of every detail as an homage to the days of Doris Day and Rock Hudson - this movie's got LAYERS), Ewan charmed the pants off me. Even when he quite often let his Irish accent take over, it was utterly adorable. And pretending to be a naive southern gentleman? *swoon swoon* His talent spills all over the movie, and you get the idea that he has plenty more at home to pull off virtually any other role. I liken him to Colin Farrell, who has proven several times that he is quite possibly the most magnetic, unstoppable young actor in the business today. I'll give Ewan the edge because of both seniority and the fact that he seems like a great guy in real life, and despite the whole "Star Wars" thing (I'm sure Farrell would flounder just as helplessly under the sloppy tutelage of George Lucas, too), but these are 2 guys who casually command the screen like no others. Their talent and commitment is unparalleled, as may be their taste in roles, if their streaks continue. "Daredevil" may not have been a masterpiece, but Farrell emerged as the most memorable part of it. And that Ewan managed to stand out even in a film as flush with extraordinary overtures of greatness as "Moulin Rouge!" is no small feat. Hearing him sing again at the end of "Down with Love" was like the Resurrection of Jesus...okay, I'm getting a little overboard. But it was a divine moment of remembrance - his voice was so winning, so authentically sincere (that's redundant) with love and joy in "Moulin Rouge!" that to hear it again, imbued with the same spirit of starry-eyed elation, served as a breathtaking reprise to one of the happiest movie experiences I've had in a long, long time
P.S. David Hyde Pierce rules. People are tired of "Frasier" (even I stopped watching a few seasons ago), but I never stopped rooting for him. Even (or should I say particularly) in "Full Frontal", his was the character I was most instinctively sympathetic towards. He's endearing as a spasmodic, worrisome nebbish and not only multifaceted as an actor but expertly smooth about it as well, much like his on-screen other half, McGregor. Even when all he says is "uh-oh", there's something inherently hilarious and wacky about his delivery, and the fact that it's so contradictory to his urbane, New England-y demeanor
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jeff_v [ 8.0 ]
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I enjoyed myself silly with this paeon to the Hudson/Day comedies of the early 60s. The cast is perfect (especially McGregor and Hyde Pierce), and unlike most romantic comedies, this one is actually funny. While Far From Heaven took itself too seriously in recreating the style of a Sirkian 50s melodrama, Down with Love has fun with the mode, without either worshipping it or mocking it.
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shanster [ 5.0 ]
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From the other reviews here, I really should this. The first half was so bad I fell asleep. I just returned it to the video store thinking I wasn't missing much. Because I think so highly of astrosheil and Dokbrowne, I'll get it again and give it another shot.
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| Weighted Rating | : 6.8 |
| No. Ratings | : 12 | |
| No. Reviews | : 6 | |
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