I loved this movie! Usually these test screenings are painful for me because I am a critical person. This movie worked for me on so many levels-chiefly the casting was flawless and their performances hugely satisfying. What is most surprising is that the movie succeeds in creating that old fashioned romantic comedy where the leads are true 'movie stars'. You love them because they have charisma, screen presence and chemistry and you simply can't look away! In these movies, the supporting players are true character actors that, due to the generosity of the leads, steal every bit scene they're in. It's been years since a romantic comedy has had any success or appeal to me. Usually these are tortured films with post-Freudian/post-modern angst attempting to re-invent the genre by making the leads as unattractive and neurotic as filmmakers think audiences can relate to. "Love and Sex" is a case on point of the nadir post-whatever romantic comedy. This film stars the improbable coupling of the ex-bond girl/Woody Allen alum/model Famke Jansen struggling to be modern in NYC and having a warm and fuzzy time with Jon Favreau the once favorite anti-movie star. Or "Happy Accidents" the Marisa Tomei-Vincent D'onofrio romantic comedy which suffers from and even greater desperate need to attenuate the genre by making its lead a space alien without having watched the wonderful "Starman" with Jeff Bridges for pointers. These and others like them represent the soulless grasping of clueless filmmakers trying to re- invent the wheel only to end up with a sloppy, narcissistic acting exercises on tape.
It seems to me that these "quirky" indie romances have a chip on their shoulder; as if they had been backed up into an angry corner, screaming their head off. Their look and style is usually suffocating and claustrophobic. I found "Piece of my Heart" refreshing and familiar, the way old fashioned movies with their movie stars and predictable formulas always promised a good time, a true escape. At the screening there were a group of fourteen year old girls. The film had been an obvious success with them and someone commented that they were the true audience of this film. I disagree. I have sat through films designed for this demographic, replete with ribald fart jokes and enough stupidity and insincerity to last them through High School. " A Piece of my Heart" is too sincere and guileless too do that. It succeeds despite the obstacles of a jaded 'post-modern' audience because it truly has the elusive ingredient that love stories (no matter when) have always reached for-Chemistry!
And yet, as old fashioned as it seems it has such verve and modern flair. The characters are totally contemporary. The look is a fun kaleidoscope of LA living. The editing has all the wit and modern vernacular youth culture has come to expect and love. All that is no simple achievement in my estimation. What comes through is true movie magic!
It seems to me that these "quirky" indie romances have a chip on their shoulder; as if they had been backed up into an angry corner, screaming their head off. Their look and style is usually suffocating and claustrophobic. I found "Piece of my Heart" refreshing and familiar, the way old fashioned movies with their movie stars and predictable formulas always promised a good time, a true escape. At the screening there were a group of fourteen year old girls. The film had been an obvious success with them and someone commented that they were the true audience of this film. I disagree. I have sat through films designed for this demographic, replete with ribald fart jokes and enough stupidity and insincerity to last them through High School. " A Piece of my Heart" is too sincere and guileless too do that. It succeeds despite the obstacles of a jaded 'post-modern' audience because it truly has the elusive ingredient that love stories (no matter when) have always reached for-Chemistry!
And yet, as old fashioned as it seems it has such verve and modern flair. The characters are totally contemporary. The look is a fun kaleidoscope of LA living. The editing has all the wit and modern vernacular youth culture has come to expect and love. All that is no simple achievement in my estimation. What comes through is true movie magic!