America's Sweethearts (2001)

2.5 out of 4

Starring: John Cusack, Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Billy Crystal, Hank Azaria, Seth Green, Christopher Walken, Stanley Tucci

Director: Joe Roth

Time: 100 mins

It felt weird watching America's Sweethearts, the latest romantic comedy starring Julia Roberts. Here is a film that tries to be both funny and romantic, but the laughs only come sporadically, and the romance portion never really generates any steam or sweetness. Featuring four relatively big-name actors, it's almost as if there is too much star power in the one film, and what could have been a very funny farce or satire on the film industry in Hollywood turns out to be rather average fare.

Gwen Harrison (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Eddie Thomas (John Cusack) were once America's sweethearts, a married, movie star, power couple who starred in a string of box office hits together. However, when Eddie found out Gwen was having an affair with a Spanish man named Hector (Hank Azaria), Eddie became distraught and has since holed up in a new age self-help institute. Their latest film, Time Over Time, directed by the reclusive director Hal Weidmann (Christopher Walken), hasn't been delivered on time, and it's up to studio publicist Lee (Billy Crystal), his assistant Danny (Seth Green), and Gwen's sister Kiki (Julia Roberts) to help turn an upcoming press junket for the film into a success. Little does anyone know, of course, that Kiki has a crush on Eddie.

Co-written by Billy Crystal, America's Sweethearts contains the usual zingy one-liners that one has come to associate with the popular comedian and Oscar presenter. However, the comedy doesn't really hit any high notes, unlike some of Crystal's previous work like City Slickers and Analyze This. There are definitely some funny moments, but too often it's bogged down by the romantic part of the plot, in which Julia and John Cusack develop feelings for each other. Romantic comedies work better when the comedy is situational, rather than farcical, so perhaps it would have been better to have just gone down the comedy route. Some of the ideas, such as the actress-in-decline who will do just about anything to paint herself in a good light, or the opportunistic publicist who will do just about everything to generate headlines, whether they be good or bad, are perfectly spot-on.

Another aspect that didn't quite work was imagining John Cusack (as Eddie) being leading man material in a string of romantic box office hits. Cusack has always lead-starred in films that were a little quirky (Grosse Point Blank and Being John Malkovich, to name but two), and while we shouldn't associate the character (Eddie) with the actor (Cusack), the idea, nevertheless, of him being a romantic leading man and married to Zeta-Jones is a difficult notion to shake.

Julia's only one of four main players here, and it's impressive to see her take on a role where she is not the centre of attention. Ultimately, though, she still becomes the object of someone's affection, like she was in My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), Notting Hill and Runaway Bride (both 1999), so maybe she is the designated leading lady after all. She does quite well playing the meek but sweet sister of Zeta-Jones' prima donna actress, especially as it's in contrast to the more confident personas she portrayed in My Best Friend's Wedding and Notting HIll, not to mention Erin Brockovich (for which she won an Academy Award).

Billy Crystal is Billy Crystal, dispensing his one-liners in his own inimitable way. Cusack is not bad as Eddie, though his romance with Julia doesn't work as well as it should. It seems obvious to everyone but him that Julia's Kiki is the one he should be with, rather than continually fixating on Zeta-Jones' Gwen. But it takes him long enough to latch onto that thought. The most surprising peformance is from Zeta-Jones, who's great as the difficult actress whose whims are expected to be attended to instantly. It was amusing to see the depths she would go to to keep her reputation (and popularity) intact. The supporting players do their part, from Seth Green to Hank Azaria, to Stanley Tucci and a long-haired Christopher Walken. Azaria, in particular, is very funny as the hot-blooded Spaniard, but by the end some of his antics were becoming tiring.

America's Sweethearts was directed by Joe Roth, a former powerbroker at Disney who left and formed Revolution Studios. It's not a great film, nor a particularly romantic one, but it does have some choice one-liners and plenty of star power. If only it had concentrated more on the comedy rather than the romance, America's Sweethearts could have been a winner.

(c) Joe Wong (22 July 2001)