Down With Love
Directed by Peyton Reed
Review by Rada Djurica
I am sure that there are lots of people out there who still like watching old movies. Well, Down with Love is an homage to those all old-time favorites like Rock Hudson (who, incidentally, was gay).
Back in those days, everyone in Hollywood movies seemed to be "doing it." Doris Day and Rock Hudson in 1959 set the golden standard for a sparkling sophisticated sex comedy, a standard which is perfect for Renée Zellweger (Chicago), with her vulnerable confidence and Ewan McGregor with his Hugh Hefner plastic smile type, both so suited for a highly sophisticated, sexy, deliciously flirtatious comedy, staged to look like a 1960s romance.
The film is as fun for Ewan McGregor fans as it is for old time movie buffs. McGregor's character, Catcher Block, is the epitome of sweet. This is easy for McGregor, who is not just a pretty face, but also a capable actor, with a variety of characters in his past.
No matter how sugary sweet Down With Love may be, the situations in the film seem real. This film is sweet, formulaic and simply, just like '60s films. The trouble with Down with Love is that sweetness is a risky idea, for even with a slightly ironic context, if it's overdone.
As the film starts, the narrator introduces us to New York City in 1962. Barbara Novak (Renee Zellweger), is a farmer's daughter from Maine, who arrives in The Big Apple to sell her non-fiction book, Down with Love.
The highly feminist book advises women how to seek out and enjoy sex just as men do, without letting marriage and the four-letter "L" word interfere. The book, once released, tops the bestsellers list and makes Barbara a household name.
Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor) is a ladies' man, a man's man and man about town, the lead writer of America's biggest men's magazine. Initially, he refuses to interview Barbara, much to her annoyance. The game of love is about to start.
So what does Block have to do with all this? Catcher decides to try for a new score, to shag a feminist. But is it love, or just a shag? Unpredictably, Catcher falls for Barbara.
This cinematic fluff is "sinfully" delicious, with a modern twist. Barbara couldn't behave that way in a '60s move, but today is entirely different thing. Therefore, I assume that Down with Love can be as successful today as Rock Hudson and Doris Day were in the '60s.
I don't know what the director wanted to achieve: perhaps just the money that could be brought by a film starring McGregor and Zellweger. And that strategy might work.
Instead of commenting on the film, women who see the movie often comment on McGregor. Women who, instead of knitting in their lap, are coming into the cinemas with condoms in their pockets.
There's a detail that I really appreciated: a comic conversation between Catcher with his associate about the size of his socks, heard by his secretary. I really doubt any woman in the '60s would faint by misunderstanding the size issue. But the director of the film relied on familiar cliches.
This is an upbeat, charmingingly sweet comedy, and it's
a great time, with its hilarious visuals and ridiculous, old-fashioned
dialogue.