Romance & Cigarettes

Yesterday I saw the movie "Romance & Cigarettes," which is playing at the Film Forum - a limited run and the only place in the entire US that you can see it. It has an all-star cast including James Gandolfini, Susan Surandon, Kate Winslet, Christopher Walken, Mandy Moore, Mary-Louise Parker, Steve Buscemi and even brief appearances by Eddie Izzard and Amy Sedaris. With all those names, you would think it would be getting more distribution in the US. Although, after seeing it, I guess I'm not surprised it didn't.

"Romance and Cigarettes" was advertised as a musical, and in the past I might have said that was why it didn't get picked up in theaters. But right now the American Movie Musical is experiencing a bit of a revival, so I don't think that's the problem. I also don't think it was quite a musical. Yes, there was singing and dancing. But it was more like the actors were singing along with the radio because every time a song burst in, the original singer's voice was left on the track and half the time you couldn't even hear the actors' voices singing along because the track was so loud. This actually really irritated me.

There was also a few too many "wtf?" moments - moments that really weren't pertinent to the plot at all and were either a little too outrageous or just completely unmotivated. I love musicals. I can do the whole suspension-of-disbelief-when-people-break-out-into-song thing. But actually most of my "wtf?" moments had nothing to do with when people were breaking out into song (for example the first time Amy Sedaris appears out of nowhere in their backyard drinking a beer and shouting about how much she loves their band).

On the positive side, I thought all the actors - particularly Kate Winslet and Christopher Walken - were amazing. I loved the characters and the way each actor made such distinctive choices in their portrayals. Each character was a character and I felt that the actors went all the way with them. Although I would've liked Eddie Izzard to be used better. He is awesome and he wasn't really given much of a chance to shine.

Despite the plethora of "wtf?" moments, I have to say I did enjoy a lot of the silliness. I laughed a lot and I had fun watching it. Visually, at times, it was quite stunning and entertaining. And certain numbers were definitely done in a very campy classical musical style.

The best part of the movie was that it could be very sweet and heartwarming at times. It ends on a bittersweet note and I will admit I shed a tear. It is - moreso than a musical - a movie about love and dysfunctional families, and I thought that the film was actually quite successful in this sense. I bought their love and their hatred and all the in-betweens.

Overall, I definitely recommend seeing it, even if just because we New Yorkers are the privileged few in the US who can, and that makes it kind of special. Tata dahlings.

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