Release Date: June 20, 2003
Starring: Luke Wilson, Kate Hudson, Sophie Marceau
Directed by: Rob Reiner
Written by: Jeremy Leven, Adam Scheinman, Andrew Scheinman, Rob Reiner
Distributed by: Warner Brothers
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (sexual content, some language)
In Alex and Emma, director Rob Reiner more or less rehashes When Harry Met Sally, splicing in a storytelling device used most memorably The Princess Bride and concepts similar to those found in Adaptation (writer’s block) and Possession (paralleling romances in two different time periods). There’s nothing particularly wrong with taking from classics such as these, especially since two of them were directed by Reiner himself. But the new storyline has to be as fresh, entertaining, and above all else, allow for romantic chemistry between the leads -- not simply a recycling bin for previously successful date movies.
While Kate Hudson and Luke Wilson fulfill every requirement of what their characters demand, the movie’s simultaneously developing storylines -- one of which is supposed to feed off the other in order to advance the plot -- end up working against each other, strangling any potential chemistry in its infancy. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting approach to see an author’s story come to life as it’s being written, especially as it draws from his reality and develops almost spontaneously -- something fans of Adaptation will remember well.
Alex (Wilson) is a novelist who has a $50,000 gambling debt with some very dangerous people, and he can pay it off with the advance his publisher is going to pay him on his next manuscript. The only problem is that he’s got writer’s block and only thirty days to turn in a finished draft. So he hires a beautiful but feisty stenographer, Emma (Hudson), to transcribe his words. With Emma doubling as his muse -- though he doesn’t realize it initially -- Alex soon finds the ice thinning and their developing romance subconsciously finding its way into his novel.
Alex and Emma, as poorly written as it is, nearly doesn’t deserve the performances its two leads give. Hudson is naturally charismatic and has a knack for cynical comedy. Wilson eases into his laid-back role, giving an underplayed but classically funny performance. And Sophie Marceau, who plays the third side of the love triangle in Alex’s novel, is also well-cast as the materialistic matriarch, selling her character’s tempting sensuality and making it completely believable that she would be the object of every man’s affection.
However, in the scenes portrayed in the novel (which is set in the 1920’s), the actors suddenly push their performances over the top, delivering their lines with gross exaggeration in a highly distracting manner. It’s almost incomprehensible as to why Reiner would have Hudson, Wilson, and Marceau overacting so conspicuously in the novel scenes. It might be so that the audience knows these scenes are fake and the characters only fictional composites, but it makes Alex’s supposed talent for writing (much like his cliché-ridden dictation to Emma) less believable, not to mention the thought that a publisher would be willing to advance Alex such a substantial sum for something like this.
In addition to Wilson and Hudson’s lackluster performances as the literary characters, the awful dialogue and nonexistent character development for the leads’ alter egos, Adam (Alex) and Anna (Emma), only reinforces the failure of that subplot. Furthermore, the credibility of the characters’ underlying feelings for each other is also called into question; in essence, Reiner has sabotaged his entire movie with these melodramatic story-within-a-story inserts.
Wilson and Hudson’s lack of romantic chemistry in Alex and Emma is yet another strike against the film. Hudson, Wilson, and Marceau work their hardest to compensate for the unfocused efforts of director Reiner, with mixed results, and because of the uncreative writing, with the exception of the premise (which is reportedly loosely based on Dostoevsky’s The Gambler), Alex and Emma is a very forgettable movie. Yet another contemporary dud that makes the illustrious days of Reiner’s directorial career harder and harder to remember.
-- Ed Malinowski (edman_mal_pal@hotmail.com)