I watched Down with Love last night and I must say I really enjoyed the movie.
First off it is gorgeous. The clothes, the sets and the colors are fantastic.
On top of that the film has a sense of humor that, well, fits me perfectly. After the Fox Logo it shows an old title card that boasts that the film is in “Cinemascope”. Then we are shown NYC and narration tells us that it is 1962 and the city has 8 million inhabitants. Zoom in on Renee and 'Oops! Better make that 8 million and one". We have zoomed in on Grand Central Station and she comes up in the hustle and bustle and see a long line at the taxi stand. Then our plucky heroine looks across the street and sees a taxi pulling up and starting to discharge its passengers. It has pulled up in front of the UN. She dashes across the street and gets the cab.
If that is funny to you then you will probably love this movie.
It’s not a perfect film. It is a bit on the long side and it takes far too long for Renee and Ewan to meet but I laughed out loud quite a bit at this film.
Did any else see this movie.
I enjoyed it; they did an excellent job of producing a light-hearted sex comedy of the early 1960’s, with the addition of a few double-entendres that would have been a bit too racy for the time. Perfect casting (David Hyde Pierce was doing a role that would have belonged to Tony Randall in 1962; he even uses the exact same mannerisms and gestures).
Great flick. The New York jokes were great. I love this city more than any place I’ve ever been and they really played with the geography. The Empire State building and the Statue of Liberty were practically right next to each other! For those who don’t know, Grand Central station and the UN building are not next to each other either. Not even close. No idea what hotel that view was supposed to be from, but it was very cool. Nice shot of New York in the 60s at the end too. I love seeing the city in the past. It has had a long and fascinating history and every decade has changed the face considerably. That was my favorite thing about Gangs of New York.
I also dug the swingin’ bachelor-pad & I totally groovily dug upon Frasier’s brother as a nerd who finds his inner beatnik while our womanizing hero learns that he is really a whipped bitch trapped inside of a man’s body and our heroine finds out she’s really a manizing nerd in a hot chic’s body who wants what all women want (instead of a nerd who wants what all women want pretending to be a hot chick who really wants what all women want). Speaking of run-on sentences - Holy shit, that was one hell of a monologue she had to remember! You know, when she finally comes clean? No cuts or edits either! Wonder how many takes THAT took. That’s alotta words to be mesmerizing. . . .
I just may have to go check out some old Doris Day flicks now.
I enjoyed the movie as well. The scene I thought was funniest was when Barbara Novack is on the balcony sunning in her crop top and shorts outfit. She gets a call from Catcher Block who has just gotten out of the shower. Between Barbara’s antics and Catcher’s calisthenics, the split screen looks like they’re having sex. You sure couldn’t have seen that in a 60’s comedy.
I kind of rolled my eyes at that part. Austin Powers has done that gag to death. Not original and therefore not all that funny from where I’m sitting. But I guess it’s hard to fault a movie for jacking bits of other movies when the whole purpose of the movie is to make fun of bits from other movies (especially since the movie they stole the bit from was making fun of other movies bits as well!). It didn’t SEEM like they were trying to make fun of Austin Powers though, just seemed like they wrote an unoriginal gag.
I liked the song at the end alot:
“I have a thirst that’s legendary. . . .”
“That’s why I fired your secretary. . .”
Nice use of “Fly me to the Moon” also. I love Frank, and the female version wasn’t bad either (even if it did sound a little too French). Much of the wordplay was quite clever and catchy. The “No”, “Know”, and “Now” stuff towards the end cracked me up. By the way, did the New York publishing chick have a lisp or something? There was something strange about her voice . . .
I didn’t want to see this movie because Renee Z rubs me the wrong way. But then I caught a little “The Making Of…” type of show that talked about the clothes and set design. It changed my mind about the movie, and now I am looking forward to seeing it.
