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Music From Another RoomRating:
Release Date: 07 January, 2003 Retail Price: $9.94 OUR Price: $6.47 You SAVE: $3.47! Cast: Complete Cast (8 total) |
Music From Another Room Reviews
Adorable and forgettable
I was very involved with this romance when it appeard on my small screen at home. I empathized with certain characters, felt deeply the pain and joy of others, and altogether enjoyed my 100 minutes with this little movie.
Then, the next morning, I couldn't remember anything about it. This, I think, is the capsule of this film.
"Music From Another Room" is a traditional romantic comedy that breaks no rules, sets no precedents, and is otherwise shipshape, likable and ultimately forgettable. It is about a young boy that helps deliver a baby and says he'll marry her...then the film jumps ahead 25 years where he inadvertently meets her and pursues his earlier projection within the constrictions of her oddfall family members. I think you probably know how this is going to end.
What this film has going for it is the most beautiful cast to grace a romance, perhaps ever. Jude Law and Gretchen Mol make one of the most beautiful lead duos in movie history and the supporting group -- headed by Jon Tenney, Jennifer Tilly, Martha Plimpton, Jeremy Piven and Brenda Blethyn -- are almost all equally as beautiful. Their ensemble work is characterful and effective, although the script is unoriginal and predictable.
While it won't displace your favorite romantic comedies at the top of your list, this movie should find a place in that list for at least a viewing or two. While the story is unoriginal and predictable it is also sentimental and the cast is beautiful. This is enough to lose yourself in this for at least one evening.
Great Screenplay-Weak Lead Performances
"Music From Another Room" is certainly recommended viewing, for what it is and despite what it fails to be. Writer Charlie Peters constructed as good a screenplay as you will ever find in the "straight" romantic genre. Unfortunately there is a failure in the execution as director Charlie Peters drops the ball in his casting decisions and in his efforts to extract the necessary performances from the two leads, Jude Law (Danny) and Gretchen Mol (Anna). And solid efforts from the supporting cast are not enough to make up for these key deficiencies.
Peters' story was inspired by Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina", and it is Danny's fate, shortly after arriving in town, to stumble across Grace Swan (Brenda Blethyn) and her family who he has not seen since he was five. "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way". At age five he had assisted his physician father in delivering daughter Anna (like the book the family's three daughters are named Anna, Karen, and Nina). Seconds after Anna's birth Danny had vowed that they would one day be married. But there is no indication in the screenplay that the grown-up Danny has come to town for this purpose, on the contrary he came to be with another woman who he has fallen in love with but who dumps him and moves away shortly after his arrival.
Peters should get credit for a great title, as "Music From Another Room" is a metaphor Danny uses to illustrate how he has felt in the past when he was in love. The idea being that love is like listening to a favorite song playing in the distance and coming back on the same beat of the song when it has been periodically drowned out by closer noises.
He should also get credit for the originality of the two-headed coin flip sequence; which sets up the film's resolution according to the flip of a regular coin. The irony being the characters ability to flip this device of randomness/destiny into an exercise of their free will.
Although not a comedy, the film is has a lot of charm and some funny moments. Even with its flaws it is better than average but this does leave you regretting that Peters did not recognize his limitations as a director and bring in someone who could have better execute the ambitious vision of his screenplay.
The problem is that the elements which make the screenplay so good, its originality and its many quirky qualities, require exceptional performances from the lead characters who must non-verbally convey a whole lot of character motivation as well as several moments of profound revelation. For "actors" up to this behavioral challenge (and for a skilled director), the roles offer a wonderful "acting for the camera" opportunity. For Law, Mol, and Peters it is way too much to ask and the result is strained and unconvincing. Which means that the mixes of sadness and joy, fate and free will, ignorance and revelation never achieve the dimensionality they should have. The failure to fill in the blanks with behavioral information combined with elements that were deleted in the editing process introduces an element of incoherence that ultimate undermines an excellent story.
Although Law has frequently demonstrated a lot of ability, he has stated that he regrets doing "Music From Another Room" and that he let himself be talked into the part. This may actually be true as he certainly gives very little of himself to the performance. The interesting thing is that the part actually has more potential than roles he has chosen and into which he has thrown a lot of energy.
Brenda Blethyn and Jane Adams turn in great performances and one can only wish that Adams and Mol had traded parts.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
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