Musings: Down With Love

I tend to get a little nutty when it comes to presents for DH. Poor man never knows what's coming when I tell him his theme for the year is something like "Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n Roll." He wonders, of course, but never knows. He wasn't that confused the year I told him his theme was "Ladies' man, man's man, man about town." That one came straight out of Peyton Reed's Down With Love, a 2003 Valentine celebrating 60s sex comedies.

Down With Love didn't make gazillions at the box office, but it is priceless. Lots of snippy dialogue, great art direction (it takes work these days to make sets look like cheesy 60s backdrops), fabulous costumes, and a pinch of magical realism--blend to a high froth. Make no mistake: this is not a serious movie. But it is seriously fun.

The short synopsis: Barbara Novak has written a non-fiction book about how women can become equal to men, which is equal parts Lysistrata and chocolate. To promote it, Barbara and her editor Vikki Hiller plan to get Catcher Block--the previously mentioned "ladies' man, man's man, man about town"--to write a story about it for Know magazine (for men in the know!). Catch's editor Peter McMannus, a nervous type, worries that his star journalist won't come through--or worse, write one of his exposés about Barbara, which imperils Peter's budding romance with Vikki. Complications ensue, hilarity, everyone's happy in the end. Of course!

The screenplay is an affectionate wink to the Doris Day/Rock Hudson comedies, with Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor in the leads, Sarah Paulson as the man-hunting editor, and David Hyde Pierce in the Tony Randall second-man role. Plus, Tony Randall himself in a cameo! It's completely nonserious and completely fun. It's worth it to watch DHP make martinis (he waves the bottle of vermouth over filled glasses of gin), Ewan sparkle and flirt his way into Barbara's life so he can expose her as a fraud, and Barbara keep pulling tricks out of her sleeve. Or gloves. This is the pre-Woodstock 60s, after all. Up with Down With Love!