Movies About Movies

My favorite Coen brothers movie. This one is not for everyone, as it takes a rather surreal, symbolic turn toward the end (although that is not uncommon in their movies) that many people will find confusing.

As far as romantic comedies go, this is one of the better of recent years, if only because elements of it harken back to romantic comedies (though the term had not been coined yet) of the 1930s and 1940s. The Kate Winslet part of the story is by far the better of the two halves. The Cameron Diaz/Jude Law parts are pretty standard for this type of movie, with no real surprises and overall fairly banal. Thankfully the story bounces back and forth between that and the more refreshing Kate Winslet story, which is at its best when it involves Eli Wallach's character, a screenwriter from Hollywood's golden age who has a lot of the same opinions about Hollywood today that I do. Jack Black is also good (and not overused) in this portion of the movie, but for me Eli Wallach really steals the film (granted, I have a slightly different view of movies than mainstream audiences, so I'm not sure everyone will see it this way, but if you have a real love of classic movies I think you'll agree with me). Realistically, Kate Winslet's part of the film couldn't sustain an entire picture, making the Cameron Diaz part necessary, but every time the film switched to England I couldn't wait for it to get back to Los Angeles. If you like romantic comedies AND have an interest in film history and movie making in general (three of the characters have a direct connection to the film industry), then you will definitely enjoy this film. As an aside, I give the fillmmakers credit for accomplishing something rarely seen in movies: a movie-within-a-movie that looks realistic. Specifically, Cameron Diaz' character edits movie trailers, and one of the trailers is shown in its entirety, and it looks like an actual movie trailer. Usually, when a clip of a fake movie is shown in a film it is not done in a realistic way and doesn't seem like something that would exist in the real world. For example, although I love Christopher Guest's films, the movie they are making in For Your Consideration is way over the top and would not be watchable, much less an Oscar contender.