7 jours et une vie

So the plot is thin, the characters not entirely likable, and some scenes knuckle-bitingly awkward when you know they're trying to be cute. Some of the dialogue is pretty good, and most of the acting if superb.

But what I really want to talk about is Seattle. In a world where my hometown is turned into a shallow replacement for New York, or just stereotyped to DEATH (see - Fraiser, Sleepless In Seattle, The Ring etc) it's nice to see a film that actually gives a crap about the city.

Holy doo-doo pants! Is that KOMO 4 News?! Okay, so they made one of the Os and Q, but those are the faces I watched every Saturday before the morning 'toons.

We see all kinds of places in Seattle that aren't international landmarks - Leschi Elementary School, Alki Beach, the Downtown Transit Station, the Queen Anne Easy Street Records, giving the viewer a realistic representation of the simultaneously snooty and gritty City of the Sound.

There are no slip-ups of speech. No one says anything about Lake "CHELL-un" (Chelan is pronounced "sha-LAN", Fraiser!) nor is the Sound ever accidentally referred to as a bay.

So basically what I'm saying is that if you want a movie that took its time to understand the character of the city it was taking place in, this is it. And avoid The Ring at ALL COSTS!

A reporter, Lanie Kerrigan, interviews a psychic homeless man (Shalhoub) for a fluff piece about a football game's score. Instead, he tells her that her life has no meaning, and is going to end in just a few days.

The moral of this story has been told ever single time from "It's a Wonderful Life", to "Last Holiday", even to "Click". Each of these movies have always won me over because I love moral stories and I certainly love this movie!

Sure, you've seen this so many times before. Sure, it's filled with clichéd, Sure, it's predictable what's going to happen before it happens. But it's a feel good movie. It puts a smile on your face when it ends. Don't go on the movie too hard.

I loved the performance by Angelina Jolie. The supporting characters give us some laughs along the way, although the film isn't too funny but more like a drama. I like the score for the film. I liked the film a lot but not as much as I thought it would be. Still, it was a pretty good film if you like moral movies. "Live everyday like it will be your last."

If one is asked to sit through 99 minutes of a film that ponders, "Living every day as if it were your last," then the film should at least deliver a fresh prospective on this overdone topic. If it fails to do that, perhaps a character that the audience would care about is in order. Life Or Something Like It fails to do both.

Lanie Kerrigan (Angelina Jolie) is a local Seattle news reporter who is being considered for posh job in New York, for "AM USA." She must first prove herself in the field by working with Pete, an experienced cameraman (Edward Burns) whom she supposedly hates. When the ambitious reporter interviews a homeless prophet, he announces that the blonde reporter will die within a week. Once all of his other predictions come true, Jolie's character begins to realize that she is in fact going to die. As Thursday (D-day) quickly approaches, the reporter re-evaluates her own life.

The premise of the film is a little interesting at first. Sure, it has been done over and over again, but various interpretations have their own charm and there is room for more. However the development of the plot is just too obvious and there is nothing new, nor is anything portrayed in a very intriguing way.

While Life was marketed as a light comedy, it is anything but. Comedy would have been a much better direction for the filmmakers, however aside from a few jokes on the sidelines, the film takes itself very seriously. The tone of the script is confused. It's similar to A Knight's Tale which also tried to hopelessly shift between drama and comic relief. In the end, we end up with a picture that doesn't work as a drama or a comedy. Throughout the film, it feels as though the filmmakers kept changing their minds.

Unfortunately the confusion is not the only self-destructive component in the movie. The character development also does the job fairly well. Jolie shows Lanie's ambition sufficiently, but the movie suggests that there is more wrong with her life than a little healthy competition. It seems ridiculous that a person whose real tough faults we haven't seen is trying to change her ways. The movie seems to artificially pull Lanie into changing, instead of using character development as cause for such an evolution. Lanie changes at the end, but the question, "why?" remains. Pete's relationship with Lanie also seems forced. Pete flashes randomly throughout the movie, cueing Lanie's unfolding.

Edward Burns carries his role well enough, but unfortunately there isn't much to carry. Angelina Jolie just doesn't seem to fit into this role and while she is a talented actress, there is something very odd about her in Life. In fact, Tony Shalhoub is the only actor who remotely stands out in this movie. Although his dialogue follows the same scripted fate as the others, Shalhoub manages to express with his voice and facial expression much more than the script actually inhibits.

The script doesn't allow the audience to care much for any of the characters, doesn't contain a single original idea and tends to push ideas aggressively instead of allowing the audience to discover them. The script also leaves off various unresolved mysteries, most of which only seem to act as space fillers. The filmmakers take us towards one direction and back off immediately afterwards. Maybe they forgot? Considering the pacing, most of the audience did too.

Life Or Something Like It is comparable to one scene where Lanie's soon to be ex-boyfriend, Cal, takes Lanie to a ballpark in the middle of the night to throw a few pitches after a heart-to-heart talk. Lanie expects Cal to have some words of wisdom for her, or at least charm - but doesn't catch anything except the ball. Life Or Something Like It won't change your life and it won't change your mood either.

If you need to kill time, see the movie - But what if today is the last day of your life?

Grade: D

Nothing like real life! Fancy directorial touches--and Angelina Jolie looking sexy in a Marilyn Monroe platinum 'do--cannot save innocuous, superficial film about a TV news-anchor being told she will die in a week by a street psychic with an impeccable record. Romantic side-plot between Jolie and cameraman Ed Burns never heats up, although Jolie is quite an intriguing presence all on her own (her performance is generally uneven, but her beautiful face is always worth reading). Has a few strong scenes, and an interesting supporting performance from Stockard Channing as a Barbara Walters-type, however the script doesn't dig very deep. **1/2 from ****

LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT has a premise of reporter Lanie Kerrigan being told by a homeless man that she's going to die in a few days from now and right away I was expecting some bitter-sweet angst , a sort of present day morality tale inspired by Frank Capra and I guess very early in production this was the idea but I was left confused . Is it a redemption tale ? If so then why does Lanie start out as a not unlikable person and remain a not unlikable person throughout the movie ? You see there's little in the way of character development and the situations and soul searching never seem to draw the audience into Lanie's fears . None of this is helped Stephen Herek's shallow direction either

In short this is a shallow film but while being confused as to what it's trying to say it's also fairly watchable too . Angelina Jolie is breath takingly beautiful and in many ways she's like a female Leonardo Dicaprio in that her good looks disguise she's a much better actress than critics give her credit for and imagine how worse the movie would be if her role was taken by say Sandra Bulloch while Dave Newman's haunting score also helps the movie greatly