The Rewrite

The Rewrite is a nice old fashioned comedy film with a number of actors who were popular about twenty years ago. Nice to see them all again. Hugh Grant, Marisa Tomei, and Chris Elliott are people I like but haven’t seen in a while. J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney are two more members of the Older Folks here. There are a number of pretty young people who play students to Hugh’s screenwriting Professor.

In classic Gray’s Anatomy style, our hero sleeps with a student the moment he steps off the plane. He doesn’t see anything wrong this, as he likes to rememeber the good old days when he knew young actresses dumb enough to think sleeping with a screenwriter could get them a part. Everyone he mets recalls his one hit film and tells him how much they liked it. He talks to his agent and begs from work, anything to get him away from teaching. His first class sees him telling his students to come back in a month with a rough draft for him to look over.

He doesn’t like the New England cold. He insults an important woman at his first faculty event. He doesn’t fit in at all. But over time he comes to like the local food and the local people. He even finds that he likes teaching and slightly more mature women.

The funny bit here is that The Rewrite is the kind of movie that our hero says modern Hollywood won’t make anymore. No blood packs exploding all over the place, no excess nudity, no car crashes, and not flogger or pair of handcuffs in sight. Of course, 50 Shades made has made 150 million dollars (so far) and The Rewrite made a couple of million. Worldwide. So maybe there’s a reason Hollywood doesn’t do RomComs any more.

The Rewrite was fun, but not exactly great.

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