Movie: Down With Love
Starring Renee Zellweger And Ewan Mcgregor; Directed By Peyton Reed
Written By Eve Ahlert And Dennis Drake (Fox Regency Films)
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes


Down With Love is a throwback to the early Sixties when romantic comedies made a big deal out of the Battle Of The Sexes. Renee Zellweger plays Barbara Novak who has written a hit book that changes the whole equation between men and women. Ewan McGregor plays Catcher Block, a big-time magazine writer and ladies man, who is determined to return things to the old status quo.

Down With Love is light entertainment, yet Peyton Reed's direction is top notch. Visual gags and one-liners abound. Novak's editor arrives in a cloud of cigarette smoke -- remember when everyone smoked in the movies? The ladies get new costumes every five minutes, each one more ostentatious than the last, and Catcher's penthouse is full of impress-the-girl bachelor gimmicks that no one questions how he can afford.

And of course Catcher goes in disguise to trap our Miss Novak, who's become depressed that she can't land a man herself now that her book is so popular. At the end Novak gives a statement of why she wrote the book that's priceless. Zelleweger rattles on for what seems like five minutes with all her reasons and one thinks this should be where they kiss and make up but it isn't; Reed manages to get in one last round. It's a very high dose of high camp.

Reed has choreographed shots so there's lots of visual segues between scenes that look great. My favorite is a split screen conversation between Barbara and Catch that's hilariously suggestive, but there's another that features a mix of Brasil 66 and Frank Sinatra both singing Fly Me To The Moon that intercuts nicely with the two preparing for a date. The music direction on the film was by LA deejay Chris Douridas (whose weekly show New Ground is available over the Net) who did a fantastic job with the big band driven sound. There's even a video of Judy Garland singing Down With Love that's a real delight.

The lavish attention to detail is marvelous, but when the smoke clears all you're left with is an exercise in style. Much like the movies of the early Sixties themselves. I've read more than a few reviews of the movie that were really hard on it, and I wonder exactly what these critics were expecting. I was expecting a kind of Austin Powers-ish take on Gentlemen Prefer Blondes or How To Marry A Millionaire, and I got it. It could have been handled more like Amy's Orgasm in 60's drag (if you didn't see Amy's O, it's also about a woman who writes pop psychology but has trouble with her own love life), but Down With Love is the complete package, a much-ado-about-nothing screwball comedy that's deadly accurate with the Hollywood 60s ambiance.

The Skinny:
Am I glad I saw the film? Yes, it's pure puerile entertainment.
Would I go to see it again? Yes, it might even become guilty pleasure.

© 2003 - Rusty Pipes