1994 - I'LL DO ANYTHING, decent romantic comedy from James L. Brooks

This tale of Hollywood and an actor learning to be a parent to his estranged six year old daughter is the film that started out as a musical.  Test audiences hated the musical numbers so they were all dropped from the film.  The writer/director James L. Brooks rewrote new scenes which were inserted into the final film but to no avail.  The film was a critical and financial flop.

James L. Brooks the mastermind behind this failure had been on a hot streak with successes like Broadcast News and Terms Of Endearment.  Brooks is a talented guy but I can't recall any musical scenes inserted into any of his previous films.  He clearly decided he was the guy to revive the defunct musical genre.  Disaster was foreordained.

 

What's left is a fairly decent romantic comedy with lots of amusing jokes about Hollywood.  Nick Nolte is an actor who has never been able to get a  break in the movies.  Much to his surprise while taking care of his daughter his ex-wife has abandoned, she turns out to be a talented child actor who gets a part in a sit-com.  At the same time Nolte begins a relationship with a production assistant played by Joely Richardson an English actor who does a convincing job with her west coast accent.

Another relationship is featured in the film between Albert Brooks playing a pushy producer of action films who begins a romance with a film analyst played by Julie Kavner.  Albert Brooks character is clearly modeled after flamboyant producer Joel Sliver.  Albert Brooks is his funny self as usual.

James L. Brooks may not have been someone to take on a musical comedy. His strength has always been in creating interesting characters and putting them in funny situations.  Brooks is always a meticulous craftsman, the performances and scenes are filmed at his very high standard of quality.  I'll Do Anything is probably a lightweight film at best however it has a lot of entertaining qualities.

The running time is 115 minutes.

2010 - HOW DO YOU KNOW, very low key romantic comedy.

This romantic comedy about a female athlete and a businessman from the writer/director James L. Brooks was rejected by the critics and public.   Brooks was accused of losing his comedy touch, overpaying the stars and taking part in the massacre of cute little kittens at an animal shelter.

How Do You Know doesn't seem all that different from the previous five films he's written and directed.  If you examine his other films two of them have been serious under performers.  Spanglish and I'll Do Anything have left him with a batting average of about .500.

Part of the problem for audiences and critics may have been that Brooks conceived How Do You Know as a more intelligent romantic comedy than audiences have been used to.  People were actually expected to think about the relationships and situations  for a change. 

The cast and the acting with the exception of Jack Nicholson isn't too bad.  Nicholson is just way off as the conniving father of Paul Rudd who will even railroad his son into jail to protect his company. 
Paul Rudd is good as the stressed out businessman, Owen Wilson is the clueless jock trying to figure out this whole relationship business.  Reese Witherspoon may not have been the best choice for the female jock but she works hard and gives a professional performance. 

How Do You Know is not a perfect film, it has serious flaws but it is certainly not worthy of all the scorn that has been heaped upon it. 
 
116 minutes.