It's good to see Frances McDormand dominate this 2003 movie rather than steal scenes in other stars' vehicles like "Something's Gotta Give" and "North Country". With her piercing intelligence and insouciant manner, she is in top form as Jane, a successful, proudly bohemian record producer who lends her Hollywood Hills house to her estranged son Sam and his equally conservative fiancée Alex to occupy while he starts a residency in the psychiatric ward of an LA hospital. Alex and Jane have never met because he is embarrassed by his hippie mother. Much to his consternation and despite Alex's initial need to work on her genomics dissertation on the reproductive habits of fruit flies, the two women start to bond bolstered by the presence of Jane's sixteen-years-younger rocker boyfriend Ian whose record Jane is producing. Meanwhile, Sam finds unexpected chemistry with fellow resident Sara who pursues him with a becalming fervor. The standard romantic complications ensue amid a lot of LA-style partying and the inevitable conflicts that occur between parents and children. Even though the movie has a veneer of appropriate hip-coolness mostly due to Wally Pfister's deft cinematography, the story feels very by-the-numbers with plot developments telegraphed pretty much from the outset and an ending that saps the energy out of the whole venture.
Directed and written by Lisa Cholodenko, the film has lots of vivid images but not enough of a melding between audacity and credibility to make it exceptional. The most far-fetched, underdeveloped element is Alex, as embodied literally by a tentative Kate Beckinsale, who seems ludicrously naive for someone who graduated top of her class at Harvard Medical School and looks like an aspiring supermodel. Luckily the other actors fare better with Christian Bale effectively uptight and unforgiving as Sam, the striking Natascha McElhone using an Israeli accent to much too alluring effect as Sara, and Alessandro Nivola (bearing a certain physical resemblance to Coldplay's Chris Martin) constantly threatening to steal the picture as the hedonistic Ian. Nivola also sings quite credibly as the band's front man. But it's McDormand who conquers the film's potential clichés and predictable story turns with her sexy, free-spirited performance. The DVD is short on extras - Cholodenko's earnest commentary, a few trailers and a twenty-minute making-of featurette that is really just an interview with Cholodenko, who reveals she was inspired to make the film by Joni Mitchell's classic 1970 "Ladies of the Canyon" album.
Directed and written by Lisa Cholodenko, the film has lots of vivid images but not enough of a melding between audacity and credibility to make it exceptional. The most far-fetched, underdeveloped element is Alex, as embodied literally by a tentative Kate Beckinsale, who seems ludicrously naive for someone who graduated top of her class at Harvard Medical School and looks like an aspiring supermodel. Luckily the other actors fare better with Christian Bale effectively uptight and unforgiving as Sam, the striking Natascha McElhone using an Israeli accent to much too alluring effect as Sara, and Alessandro Nivola (bearing a certain physical resemblance to Coldplay's Chris Martin) constantly threatening to steal the picture as the hedonistic Ian. Nivola also sings quite credibly as the band's front man. But it's McDormand who conquers the film's potential clichés and predictable story turns with her sexy, free-spirited performance. The DVD is short on extras - Cholodenko's earnest commentary, a few trailers and a twenty-minute making-of featurette that is really just an interview with Cholodenko, who reveals she was inspired to make the film by Joni Mitchell's classic 1970 "Ladies of the Canyon" album.