Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) was an 80’s sexy pop star (think Vanilla Ice or Wham). Now he’s just a forgotten has-been performing at Knots Berry Farm or High School Reunions, competing with REO Speedwagon and Debbie Gibson. That’s until Cora (Haley Bennett) the Britney Spears of today calls Alex requesting to see him. It seems he was her childhood inspiration (when she was 7) during her parents divorce. Now she wants him to write a spiritual song for her so she can thrust across the stage. With less than a week to come up with his comeback hit, Alex turns to the plant-whisperer Sophie (Drew Barrymore) who has a bunch of hidden poetic lyrics in the closets of her past. Yes, the movie is formulaic, and yes it’s predictable, but it has some well-crafted surprises as these two off-beat sympathetic, underdogs, join forces for more of a kindred friendship than a romance, and that’s okay. Because while we know where they’re headed, we never quite feel the chemistry but we feel the friendship, something most romantic comedies don’t give us. Friends before lovers in a way that is believable and at the same time unusual. And while Barrymore has made a recent career out of romantic comedies, this one is different perhaps because it ends in Madison Square Garden instead of Fenway Park (“Fever Pitch”). Three tiaras.
