Romance and Cigarettes

2005 musical

Rating: 11/20

Plot: Nick is a married man with three daughters, but Kate Winslet has beautiful red hair and a sexy accent which she uses to say filthy things. So he hits that. Wife Kitty doesn't appreciate the extracurricular banging, and Nick, possibly going through a mid-life crisis, tries to put his life back together. They all sing about it.

This is disappointing as a musical, as a comedy, and as a drama. So much talent was involved here. Gandolfini, Sarandon, Winslet, a small Buscemi part? Even Christopher Walken and Amy Sedaris are in this! Great cast, right? John Turturro's directing, the Coen boys are producing. That's a lot of talented folk, and in bits and pieces, there are definitely likable moments. But as a whole, this fails. The songs (plundered pop tunes) don't work, the characters' motivation is often confusing or nonexistent, the dialogue is insipidly lousy, and once you mentally drain this of its goofy ornamentation, there's barely a plot. Walken might be the best thing about this one as almost everything he does is funny. No, wait. It's the poster!