Sunday
08Jun2008
Reese, Stiller Sign On For Cameron Crowe Comedy
Sunday, June 8, 2008 at 9:25PM 
It's hard not to wish for a good film from
Cameron Crowe, whose career started with plenty
of them and then took a major step backwards in 2001 with Vanilla Sky,
although the death knell rang much louder in 2005's Elizabethtown.
Likewise, it's hard not to wish for roles of considerable substance for
Reese Witherspoon, who won an Oscar and hasn't
amounted to much since.
Somehow, I don't think teaming up is going to do the
trick.
In what
Variety calls a "romantic comedy adventure,"
Witherspoon will co-star with
Ben Stiller in Crowe's next film for Columbia,
which reportedly beat out four other studios for the project.
All we really know is that the project will be
contemporary...and that it very likely will have a really tasty soundtrack.
Unfortunately, I don't like the mix. I certainly don't
believe Stiller's hammy antics work in a Cameron Crowe comedy, and even though I
like Witherspoon - who would've been really good in the Kirsten Dunst role in
Elizabethtown, regardless of the overall success of the movie - I think
we've had plenty of coats of her romantic comedy paint over the years.
I also don't think the chemistry between the stars is
very natural. For a guy like Crowe, who has written some of the big screen's
best relationship dialogue in the last quarter century, that's a big thing to
overcome.
Can Crowe make another great film? Absolutely; he has
too much skill and he's too good with words and characters to be counted out. Do
I get a good vibe from this one? Nope.
Reader Comments (3)
Despite a miscast Bloom, I actually liked Elizabethtown, even though at times it felt like a mix tape of Crowe's Greatest Hits with a Jerry Maguire opening plus Say Anything family dynamics thrown in for good measure. And-- although it may make me woefully unpopular-- I thought Dunst livened up the role of what could have otherwise been Penny Lane the Modern Version (after Hudson's Almost Famous character). Her all-night onscreen phone call with Bloom is up there with the Casablanca call in Harry Met Sally or Garofalo & Chaplin's in Cats and Dogs.
Re: the new one-- you're right-- it's a strange recipe and the phrase "romantic comedy adventure" always makes me nervous, unless Crowe is finding inspiration in some of his favorite classic sources like Audrey Hepburn & Billy Wilder movies again. Stiller can be effective given the right material-- Permanent Midnight, Flirting with Disaster, and Royal Tenenbaums but I'm unsure about matching him with Witherspoon or Crowe. However, I'm a huge Crowe fan so I'm hoping it'll be "incendiary" as his Almost Famous alter ego might say.
Enough with overrating Flirting With Disaster (and David O. Russell for that matter) already; it's a movie that only indie snobs find funny- Zoolander had way more laughs, and that's what COMEDY should be all about!
I liked it but I definitely hear you re: Russell-- still can't get over those leaked temper tantrums. Thank goodness for youtube!