Music and Lyrics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Music and Lyrics is a romantic comedy film released by Warner Bros. on February 9, 2007 in the United Kingdom. The film stars Hugh Grant as Alex Fletcher, a washed-up 1980s pop star and Drew Barrymore as Sophie Fisher, a former English literature major. It tells the story of their efforts to write a song for singer Cora Corman (Haley Bennett), and their subsequent romance.

The film received mixed reviews from contemporary critics, but topped the UK box office.^[1] At the North American box office, it debuted at number four and generated $19 million in its first week.^[2]

[edit] Plot synopsis

Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) is a former pop star. As one of the founding members of the band "PoP!", he enjoyed considerable fame and success during the 1980s and early 1990s. Fifteen years after PoP! disbanded, Fletcher is a self-acknowledged has-been, reprising his 80's hits for audiences of his now middle-aged fans. After years of performing in increasingly humiliating venues (such as high school reunions and theme parks), a chance to recapture some of his former stardom arrives when mainstream pop singer Cora Corman (Haley Bennet) asks him to write a duet to be called "Way Back into Love" for her. To Alex's dismay, however, he has only a few days to compose the song. Furthermore, he hasn't written anything in fifteen years, and even with his old band "PoP!" he only wrote the melodies, not the lyrics. His manager (Brad Garrett) helps him to search for a lyricist, without much luck.

Alex meets Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore) when she comes to his house to water his plants. Sophie is a former creative writing student reeling from a disastrous romance. She is also a writer with little confidence in her abilities. While Alex and a hired lyricist try to come up with words, Sophie comes up with words to herself while watering the plants. Alex requests Sophie's assistance on the song, and although she initially declines, after a series of conversations with him, she agrees to collaborate. There are signs of a budding romance as the two write the song, which they finish in three days. Soon, Sophie runs into her ex-lover Sloan Cates, who wrote a book about her. Alex assists Sophie in trying to confront him. They go back to Alex's house and make love under the piano

All seems well when Cora likes the song and decides to perform it and put it on her next album. However, Cora adds a sultry, Indian-themed intro which clashes with the spirit of Alex and Sophie's work. Sophie is determined to talk Cora out of the addition, only to find Alex vetoing her efforts for fear he will lose the chance to work with Cora and finally revive his career. In the ensuing argument Alex reveals a deep cynicism towards the music business, admitting that Cora's addition is awful but viewing it as the cost of doing business. Scandalized by Alex's willingness to demean his talent and hurt by his argument that she is refusing to live in the real world, Sophie leaves him.

Cora invites Alex and Sophie to the first concert on her new tour, at which she and Alex are due to premiere "Way Back into Love". However, to Sophie's surprise, Cora announces "a new song by Alex Fletcher", and she begins to leave, under the impression that Alex stripped her of her songwriting credit. Alex instead performs an entirely new song ("Don't Write Me Off") written by himself about his and Sophie's relationship, despite his admitted inability to write lyrics. Alex tells Sophie backstage that he convinced Cora to remove the risqué Indian-music-themed introduction of "Way Back into Love" as an attempt to "win her back". The original version of the song is performed by the two (Alex and Cora), after which Alex and Sophie kiss backstage.

During the credits, a VH1-style Pop-up Video informs viewers of the events after the movie.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Soundtrack

Main article: Music and Lyrics: Music from the Motion Picture

The soundtrack was written and performed by the following individuals:

[edit] Trivia

• The movie was originally titled, Music and Lyrics By... but was changed to Music and Lyrics.
• Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant actually sang on the film.
• Martin Fry, lead singer of ABC, worked as Grant's vocal coach during production.
• Many of the songs they performed, including "Way Back Into Love," were composed by Adam Schlesinger, who composed the title track for That Thing You Do!
• "Dance With Me Tonight" was composed by Clyde Lawrence, the 13-year-old son of the film's director/producer/writer, Marc Lawrence.
• The scene in which Grant sings in an amusement park on Long Island was actually filmed on location at Adventureland which is located on Route 110 in Farmingdale, New York.
• Nick Bacon is an actual musician and former guitarist of the Boston punk band Lost City Angels.
• Hugh Grant's character was allegedly inspired by the story of Andrew Ridgeley of the 80's British pop group Wham!, where one half of the duo, George Michael, went on to enjoy a successful solo career leaving the other bandmate behind in his solo ventures. The video for Pop! Goes My Heart borrows visual elements from Wham's Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go music video. The song Meaningless Kiss performed by Hugh Grant is similar to Wham's megahit Careless Whisper.
• The song "Work to Do" by soft rock duo America is played over the end credits. Its only connection with the movie is the writer, Adam Schlesinger.
• The cover of Alex's album bears a striking resemblance to the cover of Gary Barlow's first solo album, Open Road. Barlow was the lead singer and primary songwriter for Take That, a British boy band popular in the 1990's. After Take That, Barlow's band mate, Robbie Williams, went on to achieve enormous success as a solo artist while Barlow's career foundered.
• Drew Barrymore has also sung a song in two other films. "The Wedding Singer", and "50 First Dates" with her character being serenaded a confession of love (Both times by Adam Sandler).

[edit] Notes

1. ^ "Music and Lyrics tops box office". BBC. February 13 2007. Retrieved April 3 2007.
2. ^ BoxOfficeMojo.com. "Music and Lyrics". Weekly box office statistics. Retrieved April 3 2007.

[edit] External links

• Music and Lyrics official website
• Music and Lyrics at the Internet Movie Database
• Music and Lyrics at Rotten Tomatoes
• About.com Interviews Drew and Hughde:Mitten ins Herz – Ein Song für dich

fr:Le Come-Back it:Scrivimi una canzone he:מילים ולחן hu:Zene és szöveg nl:Music and Lyrics ja:ラブソングができるまで pl:Prosto w serce pt:Music and Lyrics ru:С глаз — долой, из чарта — вон! tr:Söz ve Müzik