“Music and Lyrics” stars Hugh Grant as Alex Fletcher, formerly of the pop band accurately named “Pop!” The band was a cross between Wham and Tears for Fears, and was wildly popular in the eighties. But Alex’s partner left for greener pastures, leaving Alex to wonder if all his glory days were in the past.
His career starts to take a turn for the better when his manager (Brad Garrett) tells him that teen sensation Cora wants to meet him. She’s a big fan of his and wants him to write her new song. It must contain the line, “finding my way back to love,” and it must be written by Friday. If she likes it, she’ll perform it with him at her huge concert. This could mean everything to Alex’s career.
However, he’s not a lyricist. He writes music—it was his former partner who wrote all the words. Feeling desperate, he casts around to find someone to help him, only to find her in Sophie, his new plant girl.
Sophie (Drew Barrymore) is a little neurotic, a little whacky, and a breath of fresh air in Alex’s life. It takes some convincing, but he gets her to agree to help him. They come up with a song, present it to Cora, and get the deal of their lives.
Things take a turn for the worse, though, when Cora decides to add her own spin to it, adding East Indian melodies and her own brand of dancing, which consists of immoral gyrating. Sophie is offended that Cora would do such a thing to their song, Alex doesn’t see anything wrong with it, and they have a big fight over their differences of opinion. Sophie is so upset, she doesn’t want to go to the concert – but when she does, she gets a wonderful surprise.
I really enjoyed the witty banter in this movie. The script writers went above and beyond. At one point, Alex compliments Sophie on her writing. She says, “That’s wonderfully sensitive, coming from someone who wears such tight pants.” Alex replies, “It forces all the blood to my heart.” Such dialogue is frequent.
I did have one very large concern, however. Cora’s act is very sexual. I’d suggest averting your eyes whenever she’s performing – it was way out of my comfort zone. It was also disturbing to me to see how many little girls in this film adored Cora and wanted to be like her. Yeah, we really need a whole nation of little girls growing up to be like that. It’s frightening. But, if you’re willing to look the other way whenever she performs, I think you’ll really enjoy this film. It’s rated PG-13, but wouldn’t be, if it weren’t for Cora.
Fun side note: The beginning of the movie shows a music video by “Pop!” which is filmed in an over-exaggerated eighties style which is hysterical. The end shows a pop-up video a la MTV which tells us what happened to Alex and Sophie. It’s great.
Related Blogs:
The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain