Music & Lyrics (2007)

Music & Lyrics is a pop infested cute romantic comedy which stars Hugh Grant & Drew Barrymore. Grant plays Alex Fletcher a one time 80's pop icon whose band disbanded in the mid 80's and who now makes his living performing his old songs. Drew Barrymore plays Sophie Fisher who is subbing for a friend who waters Alex's plants; she's a pretty good poet, and quick witted. Somehow Alex is offered a job to write for a successful young diva named "Cora", who grew up to Alex's pop hits from his band "Pop". Eventually after having no success on his own he stumbles onto Sophie and he somehow enlists Sophie's talents in creating lyrics to his melody.

Sound complicated or a bit far fetched? Maybe, but guess what this works. The film is a quick 98 minutes long, and the movie does fly by. The songs in the film sound so camp, and yet that's what the 80's sounded like. The original music is by Adam Schlesinger. The music supervisor is Josh Deutsch & additional composer is Clyde Lawrence . The tunes are catchy and do capture the period in which they were supposedly written. The beginning of the film starts with a faux type of video from Hugh Grant's characters band "Pop". They capture the style right on the money, and it's funny to watch how Grant and his band mates ham it up in the video.

Oh! and the story about Sophie and Alex is well done. It's light and airy, and it makes for a nice romantic comedy. Both characters are funny, and I also enjoyed the scenes in how they create their song. The creative banter that happens between writers is hard to capture on film without it coming out false. Here the creative energies between the characters kind of rings true. Grant is funny in a self sort of mocking way and Barrymore plays a goofy girl trapped by her own insecurities.

I'm not much of a fan of romantic comedies but this one warmed my heart, and tickled my funny bone. It's a great date movie and it never takes itself too seriously which is the beauty of the film. I also dare you to not come away singing the films songs. Their infectious and somewhat funny. The songs seem to capture a bit of innocence of the 80's where big hair and pop tunes were the norm.

I should also mention that the movie co-stars Brad Garrett as Alex's manager, and Kristen Johnston as Sophie's older sister. Both contribute to the laughs and make this film a fun and enjoyable view. For someone who likes the 80's and is a bit of nostalgic about that decade I think you'll enjoy the film. For others the banter between the characters and the cute story that happens between Sophie and Alex is fun. All in all a good little film to catch, and like I said I dare you not to remember the songs. Also catch the end credits too. At the end of the movie the filmmakers revisit the so-called video by "Pop", and put in a VH-1 type inspired retrospective of the band "Pop" by using their own pop-ups. To VH-1 viewers they'll know what I mean.