LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT (Stephen Herek, 2002)

Reviewed: April 29th, 2002

Admitted semi-pleasure mostly due to Jolie's irresistibly winning performance as (finally!) a conservative and another supreme turn by Tony Shalhoub. This is a definite step in the right direction for Jolie; she's driven the fierce, wild girl into the ground and Life pits Jolie squarely where/how I'd like to see her right now: as a very sane (as the film proposes, too sane), extremely practical woman. The fit's nice; Jolie has a delightful flair for comedy, or rather (since Life or Something Like It is never actually funny, even when it's supposed to be, but that's the script's fault, not Jolie's), Jolie has a graceful flair for light, more fanciful work, a natural ability to sell lame lines, that special ability that only the truest of movie stars possess. Added bonus: she's so fucking easy to fall in love with.

Tony Shalhoub's masterful, sinfully-robbed-of-an-Oscar-nomination performance in last year's Coen Bros flick The Man Who Wasn't There had my tongue on the floor all the way through; his encore in Life as a homeless prophet doesn't give him a lot to work with (the script has him as a caricature) but he oozes lifeblood into the role. Even Ed Burns (whom I notoriously hate) as Joe Sixpack is adequate. Like Jolie and Shalhoub, Burns downplays where he needs to (read: where the dialogue is weak and triteness reigns supreme) and makes the most of the allotted material.

Life or Something Like It's premise -- an ostensibly has-it-all reporter on an ideal career trajectory is told she only has a week left to live -- is suitably intriguing w/a frequently charming execution, but its full potential (i.e. incisive examination of a young, fit, up-and-coming woman obsessed with her own mortality now that it's been called into question) is left unexplored. Critics seem to be angry at Life for being about such a cliched notion (life is short, live it to its fullest), but as I've mentioned in the past, better a movie be about something than nothing at all. Everyone's riffing on the same themes that have been around for thousands of years. They're all just dressing 'em up differently. Yeah, we've all heard live life! enjoy! countless times, but how often do we think about the idea on a day-to-day basis? Every morning we wake up, we go to work or school and we immediately get distracted. We forget to enjoy things while we can. Occasionally it's fun to go into a movie theater and be reminded for two hours.

PS: Director Stephen Herek's insistence -- primarily in the opening few sequences -- to use the dreaded under-cranking-the-camera-to-make-all-the-action-appear-super-fast-onscreen is putrid; as penance for his crime, I banish him to movie prison for a minimum of five months without parole.

Return home.