Liebe auf den ersten Schrei

Rail-thin, greasy-haired Jude Law falls for rail-thin, bizarrely-coiffed and made up Gretchen Mol in this uneven romantic comedy about a guy down on his luck who meets a gal from an eccentric family -- and decides he's going to marry her. He actually first meets her when she is born, but then doesn't meet her again until 25 years later. The only thing standing in his way is her highly successful, very handsome and unflappable fiancé, played by character actor Jon Tenney. Her mom is played by Brenda Blehtyn, but this is not a Bletheyn movie and she is relegated to intermittent appearances. She also has a younger sister (Jen Tilly) who has been blind most of her life and hasn't been out of the house in a good long while. There are several other quirky family members lurking about, including a married brother with an eye for the ladies (played by Jeremy Piven), although none of these folks get enough screen time to make much of an impression. The editing or perhaps the script itself leaves something to be desired. And unfortunately, there is absolutely no chemistry between Law and Mol. None. Zip. Zilch. This quasi-chick flick is recommended for undiscriminating female viewers only.

"Music From Another Room" is a romantic comedy with the sweetly sentimental flavor of a Hallmark or Disney production mixed with the occasional reality check to keep the goo from getting too thick. Sporting a fine cast, this dreamy film about a motley family and birth and death and love offers a fun scene to scene linear flow, keeps the sentimentality in check, builds its predictable love story, and manages several subplots all the while holding interest and easing a somewhat difficult buy-in resulting in a good all around romantic flick. Not for cynics, "Music From Another Room" will play best with sentimentalists. (B)

"Music from Another Room" is a light-hearted romantic comedy about a persistent chap with his heart set on one woman. Jude Law's engaging performance as the lovestruck Danny itself makes the film worth seeing. Jennifer Tilly (Anna's blind sister, Nina), Vincent Laresca (Jesus, Anna's boyfriend/husband), Martha Plimpton (Karen, Anna's feminist sister), Jane Adams (Anna's gun-toting sister in law) also deliver wonderful performances in their offbeat supporting roles. The only significant error is in casting Gretchen Mol as Danny's Anna, because Mol never allows us to understand why Danny or any man should bother with the bland and one-dimensional Anna. Mol's Anna is unlikeable from beginning to the end of the film and unfortunately never seems to be worthy of Danny's admiration.

Music From Another Room is the story of Danny (Jude Law), returning to his US hometown after spending over 20 years in England with his father, who has now passed away. By coincidence, he runs into the Swan family, who his father and himself used to be acquainted with, and especially one of the daughters, the beautiful Anna (Gretchen Mol), catches his attention. Before Danny moved to England, he helped setting Anna to this world by removing the chord that was twisted around her neck during her birth, and at that point, he exclaimed a wish to marry her someday...

This is first of all a romantic comedy, with Danny's chase for Anna as the main plot, and quite a lot of interesting sub-plots and characters. It is most enjoyable, and in the end a real feel-good movie. The script is intelligent, and at times, extremely funny. Especially Danny's landlord, Mr. Klammer, has got some killer lines early on.

The acting is also excellent. Jude Law is his usual self, well-acting and beautiful, Brenda Blethyn can do no wrong on the screen, it seems, and Gretchen Mol shows that she is more than just a pretty face. But the real stand-out performance is Jennifer Tilly as the blind sister Nina...I'm really wondering when she's going to go get the recognition she obviously deserves... A great cast all together.

The film has a few flaws, the most notable being a rather predictable story, but excellent acting and witty writing more than make up for that. Overall, Music From Another Room is a highly recommendable romantic comedy, far better than most straight-on-video stuff.

I found myself hating and loving this movie throughout the entire running time. Other than Gretchen Mol, there are some good performances, but the screenplay fails time and again to latch onto a real emotion or life-situation. I really like Jude Law but I think he was supposed to have turned this part down when it was offered.

However, the movie was made for me by Vincent Laresca, who played Jesus. He was so unbelievably nice and loving to Jennifer Tilly's character that I cried at his performance. Thank you, Vincent, and congratulations on your career.