If last year’s overwhelming support for Paddington 2 signifies anything, it’s that all we want to do is find a way back into love with Hugh Grant.
And who can blame us? His role as the mischievous villain provides a solid opportunity to re-examine a romcom that has largely been lost in the About a Boys and the Four Weddings and a Funerals of his career. All one needs to do is revisit Music and Lyrics to be reminded.
Written and directed by frequent collaborator, Marc Lawrence, the 2007 ’80s sound-centric romcom places Grant alongside Drew Barrymore, and combines quality pop music with a decent story, a lovable cast, including several delightful supporting roles, and a sharpened tone.
It’s a romcom in both actors’ filmographies we tend to overlook, but not anymore — mostly because it’s now conveniently streaming on Netflix.
A Love Story Between Two Has-Beens
The movie follows Hugh Grant as Alex Fletcher, the former “side guy” of the 80’s cheesiest boy band export, PoP!, who is going through the motions with a career centered around his “has-been” status — side note: Can we talk about how weird it is, that this is now happening to the hottest acts of the ’90s? TLC played a casino in my hometown and it just made me sad.
A chance at rekindling his relevance arrives through Cora Cora (the always engaging Haley Bennett), a zen-spired pop princess “bigger than Britney and Christina combined,” who offers Alex a spot on a duet, if he is able to write them a quality song.
As solely a “music” guy, Alex finds himself at a loss for lyrics until a chance “meet-cute” encounter with Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore), a woman with a The New School writing education, who’s temporarily watering his plants. Upon discovering her penchant for writing punchy pop lyrics, Alex recruits her and together, they write the perfect song, falling in love in the process. There’s a chance for Alex to make a comeback, but it comes at the cost of a compromise that someone might not be willing to make.
It’s basically rife with romcom regularities, culminating in a piano confessional coupled with a booming Madison Square Garden performance of said perfect song, but more on that later.
Every Romcom Has Its Thorns
So it’s not perfect. The authenticity occasionally gets a little lost in its leads’ intellectually pandering back stories: spoiler alert, but Sophie just so happens to be the painful inspiration for a teacher’s best-selling novel about a student who ruined a marriage. She can’t escape its shadow, because pretty girls always get haunted by the words of their married grad school professor in movies.
Still, its satirical examination of what it means to be on the A-list, and to be on its decline, help ground the movie in a way that’s almost more recognizable now than at its release. The movie is barely more than a decade old, and yet its presentation of relics like Tower Records, VH1’s Pop-Up Video, and Windows operating-system audio recording date it. If anything, it deepens the film’s point that no matter who you are, we all reach obscurity at some point. Perhaps then, love, and not fame, is really all we need.
Very much to their credit, Grant and Barrymore are extremely watchable leads, and their personalities and chemistry do wonders for the story. Both roles find them a few steps out of their usual fodder — Alex Fletcher comes off as a potentially more bitter character than you usually see Grant play. In-between class reunions and quips, there’s a level of sadness and fear of irrelevance he carries.
Sophie could be a very one-dimensional shy girl if Barrymore didn’t lend her a series of neuroses and quirks, that come off as refreshingly authentic with her performance. As a skilled writer stuck working at her sister’s weight loss clinic, Sophie is just as stuck in the past as Alex is.
The supporting cast also keeps the film light. Haley Bennett’s ditzy and erotic portrayal of Cora Corman reinforces how much the music industry has changed (she delivers Buddha-inspired pop songs, clad in a bikini amidst foggy religious symbols), and how futile Alex’s efforts to reestablish relevance may be. Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond) is a welcome addition as Alex’s well-intentioned manager, and Kristen Johnston is hilarious as Sophie’s sister, Rhonda, who adds a layer of caution to Sophie’s hesitation about pursuing songwriting, all while being the biggest Alex Fletcher fan girl.
Of Course The Music’s Good — It’s in the Title
The movie’s music is a highlight, helping propel the narrative the entire way through, with nods to modern tunes as well as genres of the past. The songs and performances are finely attuned to Grant’s strengths, and his wit shines as he toys with lines on the grand piano as much as when he busts out PoP!’s “patented dance move.”
Studio assisted or not, Grant, Barrymore, and Bennett completely nail their vocal contributions. The film opens with an ’80s-overdose in “Pop! Goes My Heart,” which reeks of “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” in the best way possible. Grant offers a layer of aging and reflection to “Dance With Me Tonight,” and in “Buddha’s Delight” and “Entering Bootytown,” Bennett slays her pop over-performance with conviction.
Without a doubt, the movie’s crowning jewel is the penned-for-Cora tune, “Way Back Into Love,” which Barrymore, Grant, and Bennett revisit multiple times throughout the film, in various stages of production. The track is an ode to being too afraid to step back into love, even though you know that’s what you need the most. Its piano-driven pop production and its effusive lyrics will stay with you long past the credits.
If you’re an ’80s music fan — whether it be directly or through the indoctrination of a parent or older sibling — you’ll also appreciate the film’s tongue-in-cheek references to groups like A Flock of Seagulls, Tiffany, and Debbie Gibson.
Music and Lyrics: Conclusion
Even at its cheesiest moments, Music and Lyrics wins by not taking itself too seriously. For better or worse, we’re not going back to the ’80s, the icons we once worshipped will eventually fade to obscurity, and we will carry on and grow older alongside them. Still, there’s something to be said for the way a good song can transport us, and the way music has made us feel.
It seems like Alex is onto something while convincing Sophie of the gravity of writing a good pop song, “Nothing can make you feel as good, as fast as, ‘I got sunshine on a cloudy day.’”
In a way, Music and Lyrics is a pop song of such caliber in a sea of romcoms. It might not venture too far into uncharted waters, but with some solid voices, and plenty of hummable beats, it’s a crowd pleaser that takes it a step further with its heart. While it’s lost some of its sheen, you won’t be changing the dial when it resurfaces on the radio.
Did you see Music and Lyrics when it first came out? What’s your favorite music-centric romcom? Let us know in the comments below!
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