BIASES: mid 20s black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare

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AMERICA'S SWEETHEARTS

MOVIE BIASES: Julia? Catherine? Cusack? I'm pre-sold.
MAJOR PLAYERS: Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich), Catherine-Zeta Jones (Traffic), co-writer, producer, actor Billy Crystal (Analyze This), John Cusack (High Fidelity), and director Joe Roth (Revenge of the Nerds II).

As a fringe industry guy myself, I have been looking forward to this movie. Not one but two of my Crushes in this movie, an all-star cast, and the head of the infant Revolution Studios staking his reputation by going behind the lens for this flick? I'm thinking this could only be off the chain. And as the title promises, just as I did, you'll fall in love with "America's Sweethearts."

Dave Kingman (Stanley Tucci), studio president, is REALLY screwed. A press junket for the 86 million dollar movie "Time Over Time" is only days away and the reclusive but three-time Oscar award winning director (a shaggadelic Christopher Walken) refuses to show the film until the junket. It's bad enough that the two major stars of the movie, Eddie Thomas (Cusack) and Gwen Harrison (Zeta-Jones), a husband and wife team for ten films, have broken up after this one filmed 18 months ago. Formerly America's sweethearts, Gwen and Eddie encounter public backlash for their breakup, especially since Gwen left him for a super-machismo Spanish actor (Hank Azaria) and hasn't had a hit film since. To divert the press from the fact that they're holding a film junket WITHOUT A FILM, Dave enlists the aid of his recently fired head publicist Lee (Crystal) to try and get the stars back together, or make it LOOK like they're back together. Enter Kiki (Roberts), Gwen's formerly fat sister who recently lost sixty pounds and may or may not carry a torch for Eddie. As Gwen's personal assistant/lifestyle slave, Kiki must try to maneuver her sister through the junket, put her back together with the holistically reborn, spiritual self-help disciple Eddie, all the while fighting her growing feelings for him.

The acting flies off the screen like Romantic Comedy 101. Cusack is in fine form, both charming and neurotic at the same time as Eddie, a skill he has mastered his entire career (Lloyd Dobler lives!). Catherine Zeta-Jones once again wraps her masterful American accent around a hilarious portrait of narcissistic egotism run amuck in Gwen. She doesn't even have to voice lines like "I don't handle anything myself!" for us to know it's true. Same goes for the outrageously lisping, overcooked Spanish accent of Azaria's uber-macho actor, who has a definite self-phallic complex. Roberts, as usual, is nothing short of dazzling, from the smile down to the way she handles verbose, heartfelt, turning point monologues. She has more than earned her way onto my living room wall. And Billy Crystal is the cool-handed mad scientist, cleverly stroking and manipulating any and everyone's ego who needs it in order to achieve his desired publicity result. He and Seth Green, who stars as Lee's understudy publicist, have a sparky, silly chemistry. Stanley Tucci is great as the wildly unscrupulous, borderline psychotic studio head.

But all of this is served by a simply outstanding script. Written by Crystal and Peter Tolan, the team behind "Analyze This," this look into the press junket circuit is equally hilarious and insightful. They nail the trivialities of the publicity game with extreme aplomb and humor, like the banalities of arriving first or second at the hotel and the size of hotel suites. Eddie: "She got a cottage? Why does she get a cottage and I just get a suite?" Lee: "She's got an entourage." Eddie: I'm a paranoid schizophrenic. I am my own entourage." The music by James Newton Howard (Unbreakable) has a lyrical "Peter and the Wolf" quality to it. And Joe Roth's steady, unshakable eye keeping us on what's important in this romantic comedy - the romance AND the comedy.

Lee: "Survivor Rule Number Three: You don't love anybody. You're here to promote a movie." I'm sorry, Lee. I'm in love with "America's Sweethearts."

@@@@ REELS
(FOUR REELS)
An urban legend/instant classic.

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