THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

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With Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore at the helm, each with a long history of romantic comedies, Music and Lyrics could have been yet another long slog through predictable territory. And, to be sure, both ratchet up their stereotypical personality traits. He's not just droll—he's droll incarnate—and she's not just daffy—she's daffy times ten. But, somehow, the teaming of cynic and sweet does the trick and Music and Lyrics is a very funny, likeable movie.

In the film, Hugh Grant plays Alex Fletcher, the lesser-known half of Pop!, one of those '80s duos like Wham! The movie opens in hilarious fashion with the video for the group's first big hit, Pop Goes My Heart, a spot-on recreation of one of those cheesy early '80s videos that MTV was crammed full of in its heyday. Subsequently, we learn that though Alex's career has come down to playing gigs at Knott's Berry Farm and state fairs during which he still wears his signature tight pants, he's moderately happy. But the gigs are drying up, as his manager Chris Riley ( Brad Garrett ) keeps telling him. However, there is one big opportunity waiting in the wings: Cora Corman ( Haley Bennett ) , a Christina-Britney-Lindsay-Hilary mega-pop star, idolizes Pop! and is offering Alex a chance to write her a song and duet with her on the single.

Enter ditzy Sophie Fisher ( Barrymore ) , in perhaps one of the most icky instances of 'meeting cute' ever engineered in a romantic comedy: She's the temporary plant caretaker for the wilted foliage in Alex's high-rise apartment. Naturally, Sophie, who works for a weight-loss company run by her sister ( Kristen Johnston, hilarious as Alex Fisher's biggest fan ) and has never written a lyric, will end up showing a knack for the job. The movie then bumps along, offering more wicked parodies of music-biz personalities as this newly-united Rodgers and Hart gets to work on their song.

Grant and Barrymore both sing a bit and the song they write together has a nice blend of '80s and contemporary sound ( a bit like Human League meets Christina Aguilera ) and with this and the other expert song satires, the soundtrack for the movie is going to be a lot of fun. Marc Lawrence, who has written a batch of romantic comedies for Sandra Bullock ( including Two Weeks Notice, which co-starred with Grant ) , is lucky to have the '80s parodies and music-biz characters to work into the script and to have these two strong personalities in the leads. Though both, as noted, trade on their stock characters, it's this that fans of both stars are really looking for anyway. Music and Lyrics is a tad lopsided and a tad fuzzy at the edges, but it's a pleasing Valentine's Day gift for couples and singles. And it actually opens on Valentine's Day, in a nice bit of marketing finesse.

Disney and Walden Media—apparently anxious after the delay in getting their joint production of Prince Caspian, the second in their Chronicles of Narnia trilogy into theatres—now offer another movie with elements of fantasy and religion ( and, yes, there are many who will insist they are one and the same ) , Bridge to Terabithia. Though not nearly on large a scale as the Narnia films will be, this is a nice interlude that relies on imagination over special effects.

Junior high was the absolute worst time in my life ( and in the lives of many of Our People, I would imagine ) . If ever there was a time NOT to be different, stand out or, God forbid, have imagination, that would be it. But Leslie ( AnnaSophia Robb, who played the lead in Because of Winn Dixie ) has it with a capital 'I,' and soon after moving to her new school and enduring the taunts of her new classmates, she hooks up with her neighbor, the sullen Jesse ( Josh Hutcherson ) , who has experienced his own share of junior high school torture.

Soon the duo are best friends, exploring the deep woods near their homes, patching up a long-forgotten treehouse and using their imaginations to create a mythical kingdom dubbed Terabithia, in which their real-life enemies become elevated to fantasy versions that they must conquer. ( The music score by Aaron Zigman helps elevate the magical playtime of the two friends. ) Then, the film takes a tragic turn at the three-quarter mark and questions of God and faith in the face of loss and grief take center stage while the audience is gently but firmly guided into a Sunday school lesson and the rest of the picture feels like being in detention. Zooey Deschanel, in a supporting part, plays a music teacher adding a dash of hipness to the movie's quotient.

DVD Release of Note: Something about Apartment Zero, which was released in 1988, set it apart from other gay movie fare available at the time. Not only did its leading gay character, Adrian LeDuc ( played by Colin Firth ) , not mince or lisp, but it took a while to even ascertain that he was, in fact, gay. The odd little movie, which focuses on the rather twisted relationship between the lonely film buff Adrian and his new hunky border—the jocular, exuberant Jack ( Hart Bochner, major '80s eye candy ) —also didn't really have much to do with either character's sexuality ( which also made it stand out among other gay movies of the time ) . It was instead an off-beat thriller ( set in the unusual location of Buenes Aires ) in which the friendship between the two emotionally stilted men gets more complicated as the subtext and suspicion of one for the other grows. At last, the film is arriving on DVD from Anchor Bay on Feb. 20. The film is definitely worth checking out.

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