Music and Lyrics

Starring: Drew Barrymore, Hugh Grant

Director: Marc Lawrence

Released: February 14, 2007

IMDB Plot Synopsis: A washed up singer is given a couple days to compose a chart-topping hit for an aspiring teen sensation. Though he's never written a decent lyric in his life, he sparks with an offbeat younger woman with a flair for words.



Music and Lyrics starts out strong with a parody of an 80s pop music video, borrowing heavily from, well... any WHAM! single, with a generous helping of A-ha's Take On Me. The featured single, POP! Goes My Heart is reminiscent of MTV's satirical boyband 2gether and their faux single U + Me = Us (Calculus), meaning that the song sounds better than some authentic 80s hits.

We are most dismayed to comment that the movie goes downhill from there. It's difficult to say whether the movie is a satire or simply misguided. Many of Grant's lines are cynical in nature, yet delivered with sincerity. His character, Alex, is given many reasons to be as bitter as Faith Hill at the GRAMMYs, and he instead seems decently satisfied that his best venue is currently Knotsberry Farm. Yikes.

Barrymore, on the other hand, cruises along with minimal effort (don't mistake that for effortless talent) and her crooked smile. In a burst of inspiration, she has decided her character suffers from nervous habits and twitching, which leads to audience irritation. Her character, Sophie, is liable to indulge frequent outbursts and uncontrollable pen-clicking. Her talent as a lyricist is laughable; we haven't heard rhymes this bad since 8th grade English.

One of the most poorly performed roles is, hands-down, that of the pop princess sensation, Cora. We won't mention the actress, since she deserves zero publicity. Having emerged from a heartbreaking romantic split ("We were together for two months!") she has had a spiritual awakening and is seeking solace in what seems to be, though is not directly defined as, Buddhism. Miss Cora delivers a horrifically robotic performance. We are intrigued by what direction she was given; if her performance is intended to be funny, it falls flat. WARNING: Word on the street is that she signed a three picture deal, so there's more where this came from. This could be awesome or awful; your call.

Music and Lyrics could have been a worthwhile film had it starred two budding singers, and Cora's role could have served as a great cameo for an established pop princess. The movie also should have taken a firmer stance on the message it was trying to send. It's a shame, because this could have been a really funny movie... instead, it was really a big waste of time. We will admit that the best part was marveling at how on earth it was made. Final comment? It looks like they released a dress rehearsal.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars (Thank POP! Goes My Heart for this generous rating)