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The man who brought you comic masterworks This Is Spinal Tap, Misery, and When Harry Met Sally continues on a downward spiral that leads straight-to-video for his latest effort, Alex & Emma. Actually Rob Reiner's whimsical romantic comedy, starring Luke Wilson and a mousy Kate Hudson, isn't as awful as you might expect. His biggest crime is harbouring the ambition to do something different with the stale, romantic comedy format. Unfortunately this also lends to a contrived feeling about the whole affair.
The Write Stuff
Wilson plays blocked writer Alex Sheldon, lumbered with a huge gambling debt that means he must complete his next novel in 30 days, or else... The answer to his problem arrives in the pleasing shape of Emma Dinsmore (Kate Hudson), a stenographer who signs on to transcribe his romance epic.
Cutting between his New York apartment and a Gatsby-style fantasy world, love begins to unfold -but not without a few false starts. The analytical Emma questions the airy-fairy Alex's every creative decision, which slows their progress on the book but speeds their course to - well, you know how this goes...
While deadpan dialogue spills easily from Wilson's tongue, Hudson appears ill at ease. Her charm is stifled beneath horrible hairdos and a starched collar. Then, when things get really tight, she resorts to mimicking Meg Ryan circa 1989.
The feeling of desperation is overriding, and it stems largely from writer Jeremy Leven's simplistic approach to a complicated premise. The notion of art imitating life is an intriguing one, but the fact that Emma's love rival turns up in the last five minutes of the film is just one example of many missed opportunities.
A Picture In A Thousand Words
The effortless charm of Luke Wilson and a peppering of smart dialogue help keep Alex & Emma from slipping to the bottom of the pit, but it's a shame when the audio commentary is funnier than the film.Wilson's languid demeanour makes him the perfect foil for the quick-fire Reiner as they recount an entire repertoire of behind-the-scenes anecdotes. Among them is the story of Dimwit and Lowboy - the thugs on Alex's tale who, it turns out, were named after the urinals on the dilapidated soundstage where they shot the film. (Apparently Dimwit was always blocked and Lowboy posed a threat to expensive shoes.)
In explaining how he landed the role of Alex, Wilson is also very endearing. He recalls slaving over a speech on why he was right for the part, only for Reiner to offer him the job straight off the bat and render him mute for the rest of their meeting. According to Reiner, it was at this point he began to second-guess his decision, but stuck by him in the end because "Luke is an unsweaty actor". There's a cruel irony in this observation because Reiner didn't sweat nearly enough in the making of this film.
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