Music and Lyrics

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Romantic Comedy

As any self-respecting child of the 1980s will tell you, Wham! was a great band. George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley were one of the biggest pop acts of the decade, and everybody loved their upbeat music and fun videos. Even as Michael embarked on a solo career, many have wondered whatever happened to Ridgeley a.k.a. “the other guy from Wham!”. That serves as the basis for the film “Music and Lyrics”.

Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) is washed up. He was part of the super group Pop! back in the 1980s, but his partner Colin Thompson (Scott Porter) left for a successful solo career. Now, Alex is making money of retro gigs where his one-time young fanbase still pays good money to watch him sing the oldies. Still, he’d like nothing better than to write and perform some new songs. Unfortunately, he hasn’t written any new stuff in years. When Alex’s manager Chris Riley (Brad Garrett) tells Alex of a chance to write a song for young pop diva Cora Corman (Haley Bennett), the pressure is on for Alex to come up with a winner. When Sophie (Drew Barrymore), the girl who waters his plants, inadvertently starts filling in the blanks for his song, Alex convinces Sophie to help him finish the song.

Hugh Grant is perfect as has-been musician Alex. Grant has always been great at playing self-deprecating Englishmen with a dry sense of humor. He had long ago accepted that he was washed up, but still enjoys performing. Meeting Sophie makes him realize that he still enjoys writing good music too. Barrymore has made a career out of being “the pretty, funny girl” in romantic comedies. Her neurotic and artistic Sophie Fisher fits into traditional Barrymore heroines: funny, vulnerable, flawed, and irresistible. Though both of these actors have had their share of successes in this genre before, they had never worked together. If this film is any indication, they should continue to do so.

“Music and Lyrics” is a fun and insightful look into the creative process. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a song, it can be an essay, or a sculpture, or a painting. There is magic that happens when all the elements are there to create that perfect work of art. Sure, revisions are made and rare is the occasion when you put everything down in just one draft, but the process that results in that final piece is part of the fun. As excruciating and tiring that process may be, the result would not be as great if you didn’t go through the process.

Sophie and Alex spend days writing, plodding, nitpicking, and just talking to come up with one song. Later in the film, faced with heartbreak, Alex seems to write a song much faster. There is no science to it, but the thing about songwriting (and other creative processes) is that it has to be real. If you don’t feel it, people will see right through it.

That’s what “Music and Lyrics” is all about to me. Alex had to write something that was true, and people recognized how good it was. Sophie dubbed it as “dinner”, something better than a mere appetizer. And when these two joined forces for both a song and for a relationship, the end result is scrumptious. Add to that the hilarious 80s references and Hugh Grant’s silly dancing, and you have a movie that is both hilarious and surprisingly, insightful. It’s a welcome break from the unusually large amount of big and depressing movies recently.