‘Juliet, Naked’ is a comic, heartfelt and smart film
Its racy title notwithstanding, “Juliet, Naked” is not salacious but delicious. A charming film of an engaging, adult nature about two very different people trying to press reset in their lives, it is comic, heartfelt and smart as they come — a rare combination these days.
Impressively directed with feeling for the material by Jesse Peretz, “Juliet, Naked” is acted with verve, passion and great skill by a cast toplined by Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke and Chris O’Dowd, all doing impeccable work.
Looming equally large as a creative force is Nick Hornby, author of the original book as well as the novels that inspired “High Fidelity” and “About a Boy.” No one is better at comically exploring the modern condition, at reflecting how we live now.
Hornby has been wellserved here by screenwriters Evegenia Peretz and Jim Taylor & Tamara Jenkins, who’ve made expert use of his superb ear for dialogue and gift for playful situations that make you laugh while clandestinely engaging your deeper feelings.
“Juliet, Naked” begins by having its two protagonists essentially introduce themselves on-screen.
Up first is Duncan (the brilliantly comic O’Dowd), a Brit who redefines the limits of musical obsession by being the world’s biggest fan of a man he considers “the most underappreciated figure in rock history.”
That would be cult favorite Tucker Crowe (Hawke), an American singer-songwriter who recorded a dazzling album called “Juliet” and then completely dropped from sight decades ago.
A smug and self-absorbed academic who teaches courses at the university in fictitious Sandcliff, a down-at-the-heels British resort town, Duncan admits being “a little overzealous.” But his obliviousness to how bonkers he is is part of the film’s charm.
Duncan’s partner of 15 years is the sane and self-aware Annie (Byrne, letter perfect). Annie left a promising career in London to return to Sandcliff to tend to her dying father, but her life of running the same local history museum he did is beginning to seem like a trap.
Though initially dazzled by Duncan’s glibness, Annie has become disenchanted with the way “his obsessions dominate my life.” Annie has no idea how to change her life until a package arrives at the house she and Duncan share.
Pretentiously labeled “Juliet, Naked,” it’s the acoustic demo versions of the album that Duncan reveres as one of the great works of Western civilization. Annie does not take to the new tunes the way her partner does, and she writes a disparaging review of it for Duncan’s fan website. She ends up catching the attention of the real Crowe, who writes her back.
Perfectly played by Hawke, who has never been more casually charming, Crowe turns out to be a feckless ex-rocker with numerous kids from several mothers who has always run the other way when responsibility was called for.
As a playful romantic triangle with a shape all its own, “Juliet, Naked” shouldn’t be missed.