'MUSIC AND LYRICS'
OK, enough piety. Drew is dependably darling as Sophie Fisher, aspiring writer turned songsmith in "Music and Lyrics." She turns because Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant), a musician, tells her that she has an innate flair for song lyrics, which we take at face value because the face is Barrymore's.
Grant is the main but not broad stem of comedy as Alex, a has-been '80s pop sensation. He was the second-tier star of a group called Pop, their big hit being (such inspiration) "Pop Goes My Heart." After breaking away for a solo career that tanked, Alex is now a winsomely dutiful throb on the nostalgia circuit, playing venues like Busch Gardens and Knott's Berry Farm for fully ripened but giddy women.
Using the small lines and tiny sags in his face as comedic merit badges, Grant can sparkle fluff like few other actors. Jane Austen this isn't, but he is in there, fully engaged and engaging. His soft baritone has some boyish appeal, and his dance moves are like a wittier version of Austin Powers.
Grant teams with Barrymore in such supple sync that even groaner material (like the attentive doorman who turns out to be tone deaf) hardly drags. Her lyric gifts, if not Ira Gershwin's, come through amusingly, and the song they create is so engagingly vapid that soon forgetting it hardly seems insulting.
Of course, they must sell the song less to us than to pop sensation Cora (Haley Bennett), a sort of candy-kiss Jewel who poshes up her "American Idol" vampiness with showbiz Buddhism and sitar music. Always beaming in the astral airport that is her mind, Cora says things like, "I want to show you my roof. It's upstairs."
As directed by Marc Lawrence, who steered Grant and Sandra Bullock through "Two Weeks Notice," Fisher and Fletcher make an appealing team because Grant and Barrymore are an even better one. They have more amiable fun, with less sweat, than larger talents Audrey Hepburn and Bill Holden, so frantically whimsical as improvising writers in "Paris When It Sizzles" (a fizzle).
Grant happily rummages through his role, Barrymore is splendid with gulps and goofs, and Campbell Scott is an impeccably pompous author. The topping show, a Cora colossus of kitsch, may be the best pop excess since Alan Carr gave us, with idiotic pride, "Can't Stop the Music." This beat goes on. A Warner Bros. release. Director, writer: Marc Lawrence. Cast: Drew Barrymore, Hugh Grant, Haley Bennett, Campbell Scott. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes. Rated PG-13. 2 1/2 stars.
RATINGS
4 stars - Excellent.
3 stars - Worthy.
2 stars - Mixed.
1 star - Poor.
0 stars - Forget it.
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