Teary singer meets jerk in formula rom-com
Connect-the-dots predictability as cad eventually makes amends
And So It Goes
★★
Starring: Michael Douglas, Diane Keaton Directed by: Rob Renner
Running time: 94 minutes
The road to hell is not the only one paved with good intentions. Sometimes it’s something as simple as the pathway from curmudgeon to sweetheart.
That’s the route taken by realtor Oren Little (Michael Douglas) in this uninspired rom-com, whose benumbed, mildly depressing plot is made more so by the fact that it was directed by Rob (When Harry Met Sally) Reiner.
Then again, Reiner had Nora Ephron as screenwriter on that one.
The scribe this time out is Mark Andrus. His 1997 screenplay for As Good as It Gets helped the picture pick up seven Oscar nominations, including wins for Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt.
But he seems to have lost his way on this one. For most of the film the tension revolves around whether Oren will manage to sell a house for $8 million or merely $5 million. I was on the back of my seat.
Oren is one of those spiteful, angry, boorish characters on whom no one in their right mind would waste their time.
Fortunately, movies are full of people who not only suffer fools gladly: They seem to go out of their way to find them.
One such seeker is Leah (Diane Keaton) a lounge singer whose specialty is to warble old standards from the ’30s and break down in the middle of the second chorus.
So I guess the film is a tearjerker. She supplies the tears, Douglas plays the jerk.
His initial interest in Leah is as babysitter material, after his estranged son Luke (Scott Shepherd) turns up unexpectedly with a nineyear-old daughter (Sterling Jerins) who has never met her grandfather.
Luke is about to serve a few months in prison and needs someone to look after her.
Oren reluctantly agrees, but lets next-door neighbour Leah do most of the actual grandparenting.
Then, feeling a touch guilty (and, truth be told, a little randy), he tells Leah he’ll help her singing career.
He offers advice (lose the crying) and acts as her agent. He also gives the brush-off to would-be suitor Artie, played by Reiner looking about as lost as he must have felt directing this dud.
There are a number of other secondary players, but most of them exist merely as foils for Oren.
He mistreats them in the early going and then, when it’s time for his redemptive close-up, he manages to be nice for a change.
The result feels like a connect-the-dots picture that never even hits double digits. But to preserve some sense of mystery and suspense, I won’t tell you what the house goes for.