Music & Lyrics, The Fountain

MUSIC AND LYRICS. Hugh Grant plays an 80s pop idol has-been who gets another crack at a comeback when a Shakira-wannabe asks him to write her a song. But he's only given a few days to come up with a hit song and is desperate to come up with the perfect lyrics. Cue Drew Barrymore, who just happens to have the talent for rhyme. Sparks fly and you can probably guess the rest. As predictable as that may sound, this movie is surprisingly very entertaining. Grant has a lot of witty one-liners and Barrymore...well...I've never hated her, but I've never been a huge fan of hers either -- but I gotta say that she's quite lovely in this movie, particularly in a scene where she gets to put on a red dress (Yowza!). Music has a lot of laughs, and you immediately get started at the opening of the movie, where a video of the Wham-esque group that Grant's character used to belong to - Pop - will have you cracking up. In fact, Pop's "80's" ditty will keep ringing in your head over and over, as if you're having one of those last-song-heard syndromes. And even though it seems like it was written by a child, one of Grant's other songs in the movie, "Don't Write Me Off" , is also pretty nice (well, I liked it).

THE FOUNTAIN. Spanning over a thousand years, and three parallel stories in different time periods, The Fountain is a story of love, death, spirituality and the fragility of our existence in the world. Unfortunately, the movie is so muddled that it's a bit difficult to comprehend or keep up with the premise or plot. In the middle of this mess is married couple Tommy (Hugh Jackman) and Izzi (Rachel Weisz). Jackman and Weisz shine in the film, as their scenes together are achingly poignant -- which is good and bad -- good because their performances are what saves this movie for me, and bad because these two deserve a better movie than this. The Fountain is visually amazing that it's hard to believe that what I read about it having only one CGI used for the entire film is true (writer-director Darren Aronofsky chose to do the special effects using micro-photography on chemical reactions on tiny petri dishes -- he said that the CGI would take away the timelessness of the film) . But fantastic visuals can only do so much for a movie if the story doesn't help it.

'Nuff said.