The Rewrite, 2014
Written and directed by Marc Lawrence
Starring Hugh Grant, Marisa Tomei, J.K. Simmons, Allison Janney, Chris Elliot
SYNOPSIS:
An Oscar-winning writer in a slump leaves Hollywood to teach screenwriting at a college on the East Coast, where he falls for a single mom taking classes there.
Hugh Grant is an actor who seemingly can’t reinvent himself. Back in the late 90s, Jim Carrey realised that his comedy days were probably behind him after the mediocre success of Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and instead made the move to riskier projects like sci-fi dramas (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Minds) or psychological thrillers (Number 23). Admittedly, it was a mixed bag of results and he ended up going back to rubbish comedy sequels like Dumb and Dumber To, but it was a period when he felt as fresh as he did when he first burst onto the scene in 1993. Grant has never done this. And here were are in 2014, where Hugh Grant is doing the same Hugh Grant performance we saw in Four Weddings and a Funeral, only with half the effort.
Grant plays an Oscar winning writer named Keith Michaels who can’t replicate the success of his earlier work and therefore cannot get any jobs in Hollywood. With no money coming in, he takes up a teaching job at a college in upstate New York where he falls for student Holly Carpenter (Marisa Tomei) as well as discover whether he really wants to write a sequel to his only successful movie.
The Rewrite is set in Binghamton, which is the birthplace of writer Rod Serling who created the seminal science fiction TV show The Twilight Zone. The script, from director Marc Lawrence, uses this to draw parallels with his protagonist, in particular using the first season episode “Walking Distance” as a visual metaphor for Michaels’ new path in life. The episode tells the story of a business man named Martin Sloan who heads back to his home town of Homewood, only to find that he’s somehow walked back in time to his childhood. The idea behind the episode is that you can look back fondly at your past, but you can’t live there and have to focus on what’s in front of you. In the case of Michaels, he is living in the former glory of his Oscar win and is even contemplating writing a sequel to it, feeling that is the only way he can regain the recognition he once had even if it’s not the most artistically creative thing he can do. It’s a clever comparison and Lawrence uses his Binghamton setting and episode well to reflect the choices his lead character makes.
This is sadly where the clever writing from Lawrence ends as The Rewrite is nothing more than your standard rom-com affair, complete with 2D cut out characters that are riddled with clichés. There’s the artsy film fan who only loves ‘films with meaning’ and hates all modern movies (like our own Rohan Morbey), there’s the ditsy one who is downtrodden because people keep telling her she’s ditsy, the child prodigy (who is a good looking white man, of course) and – worst of all – the nerdy kid who loves Star Wars. In fact, this kid loves Star Wars so much that not only does he only wear Star Wars t-shirts throughout the movie, but the script he writes for class is a rip-off of Star Wars. It’s so uninspired and unimaginative. The adults aren’t exempt from this lazy writing either as Marisa Tomei is a dreadfully underwritten single mother trying to make ends meet while Alison Janney is a strong-willed feminist who can’t take a joke or accept humour, simply because she’s a feminist. It’s almost a bit embarrassing to watch and it boggles the mind that Lawrence can be this out of touch while making a well-thought out comparison between his movie and one of the finest TV shows ever created.
While it’s never truly boring, there is nothing in The Rewrite to write home about. It follows a very standard path with predictable outcomes and it never tries too hard to be anything other than ordinary. There is nothing wrong with Lawrence’s fairly strong direction, but the film is so vacuous and pointless that you have to wonder how he managed to get the likes of Tomei, Janney and J.K. Simmons involved. Grant just saunters through scenes with the least effort put forth imaginable and gives us every bland Hugh Grant performance we’ve seen over the last two decades, only this time he’s twenty years older.
What’s ironic is that if Lawrence has handed this script into a screenplay writing class at college, it would have been torn apart by the lecturer. Red pen would have strewn the pages, criticising him for his lack of imagination when it comes to characters, his dull storytelling and lackadaisical dialogue. The comparison to The Twilight Zone is a glimmer of light amongst a sea of boredom, but it’s not a game changer. The Rewrite is not terrible, but it sorely could have done with another rewrite.
3/10. See me.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published February 9, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
