Movies
A Life Less Ordinary
A smarty-pants comedy that outsmarts itself. It tells of your basic disgruntled ex-employee who storms the boss's office with a gun (ha-ha) to demand his job back, but who comes away instead with the boss's daughter as a hostage and without actually killing anyone. The bigger joke (ha-ha-ha) is, or is supposed to be, that the daughter is more intent than her abductor on collecting a ransom, and must assume command. A pair of angels (yes, angels), dispatched to Earth to play Cupid to the couple, manage to get themselves hired on as trackers and go-betweens, despite the pre-existence of a fearsome security force. In short: director Danny Boyle and writer John Hodge (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting) meet Frank Capra. Ewan McGregor, as the decidedly uncool kidnapper, comes up with some ticklingly eccentric line-readings, though he can't keep pace in that department with the multiple-personality dialects of Holly Hunter as one of the angels. The movie's one good laugh is extracted brutally from the spectacle of Hunter -- or stuntwoman or mannequin -- clinging tenaciously to the outside of the getaway car. Cameron Diaz, meantime, as the second half of the romantic couple, sets the dominant tone of the movie: strenuously cute. The claymation cartoon during the closing credits is final proof of the filmmakers' reluctance to let go of your pants cuff. Delroy Lindo, Ian Holm, Dan Hedaya. 1997.
Reader Rating:
MPAA Rating: R