“Music and Lyrics” (2007)

Music and Lyrics

Grade: B+

Hugh Grant stars in the charming Music and Lyrics, a movie about a past-his-prime 1980s music star tasked with writing a song in 48 hours. It’s a rom-com with pleasant contrivances and standard melodrama, but the film smartly devotes most of its focus on the art of songwriting, with the romance coming secondary.

Directing:

Frequent Hugh Grant collaborator Marc Lawrence directs Music and Lyrics in a sturdy, reserved manner. It’s a funny film but never over-the-top goofy. Lawrence keeps the camera movements to the bare essentials, content to let Grant’s charisma carry the film. Smartly, many of the scenes are just Alex Fletcher (Grant) and Sophie Fisher (played by Drew Barrymore) sitting together in a room, talking, writing a song. It’s the rare rom-com with breathing room.

Acting:

Grant is possibly miscast — he looks more like a boozy Britpop star from the ‘90s rather than a synthpop second-fiddle from the ‘80s. Either way, he’s a delight and completely drives the film with his funny self-deprecation and nonstop dialogue. And he’s a good singer. Grant gives the character a likability that makes him easy to root for, while also displaying a nice, peppy chemistry with the ever-cheerful Barrymore.

Writing:

Like most of Lawrence’s films, Music and Lyrics is driven by dialogue, a talk-heavy rom-com that lets Grant work his magic. You already know that the characters of Alex and Sophie are going to fall in love, get in a fight and then make up at the end, because that’s what the genre entails. What I was actually interested in was finding out how Alex and Sophie are going to write “Way Back into Love” in less than two days in order to revive Alex’s career (and kickstart Sophie’s). It’s a fun and modest look into the music business — a plot line that has nothing to do with typical rom-com conventions.

Music:

A movie about writing songs better have good music, and Music and Lyrics thankfully holds up its end of the bargain (Martin Fry of ABC was Grant’s vocal coach). “PoP! Goes My Heart” is an admirable Wham! parody, and the climactic “Way Back into Love” is hokey in all the right ways, with good music and lyrics to boot. If it isn’t worthy of Irving Berlin, it’s at least worthy of Adam Schlesinger.

Ending (SPOILERS) :

“Way Back into Love,” performed by Alex Fletcher and teenpop superstar Cora (a Britney Spears lampoon), makes its concert debut at Madison Square Garden. It’s a rousing success and believable enough as a career-resurrecting hit single. Whatever you think of the song, it’s a nice payoff to all the hard work put in by Alex and Sophie, who love each other and live happily ever after. If you want to watch the Pop-Up Video homage during the end credits, be my guest, though it’s an inessential coda.

“Lyrics are important. They’re just not as important as melody.” – Alex Fletcher

Why Music and Lyrics gets a B+

Led by a magnetic performance by Hugh Grant, Music and Lyrics is an insightful and charming story about songwriting. As a rom-com, however, the familiar emotional beats fall a little flat.

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