The Laws of Attraction

Release Date: April 30, 2004

For the last time, no, I don't have an Irish bone in my body and NO, I wouldn't like to, dammit.

On the Big Board
Position Staff In Brief
52/92 David Mumpower Pierce Brosnan is charming, Julianne Moore much less so.
105/126 Kim Hollis Julianne Moore is just woefully miscast here.

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The dynamic between Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn was so kinetic that the duo formed their own sub-genre of cinema. A Tracy/Hepburn movie followed the stylistic screwball comedy patterns of Howard Hawkes classics like Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday. The opposites always wound up attracting, conveniently leading to equal amounts of fighting and falling love.

English director Peter Howitt demonstrated a deft touch for romance in his debut at the helm, Sliding Doors. He later went satirically wacky with the international blockbuster, Johnny English. In Laws of Attraction, he will attempt to combine the two modes in an update of the WWII era screwball comedies.

Utilizing the acting talents of current James Bond himself, Pierce Brosnan, and the criminally underappreciated Julianne Moore, Howitt seeks to follow in the recent footsteps of Intolerable Cruelty by analyzing the romantic entanglements of divorce attorneys. The key difference here as opposed to the George Clooney outing is that both parties involved make a living through the suffering of former matrimonial partners. Also, it's not a Coen Brothers movie, so one would assume the quirk factor will be held in check for the most part.

Brosnan plays Daniel, an attorney who has never lost a trial. When he discovers himself faced off against Moore's Audrey, a litigator with a similarly impeccable track record, he is overwrought with ambiguity. On the one hand, his ego drives him to prove he is the better divorce lawyer. On the other hand, he can't help but be smitten by a woman so similar to himself.

Audrey, equally wary of her prey (or is it hunter?), raises shields to maximum when the opposing council starts to flirt with her. Since it's a romantic comedy, one presumes her success in this endeavor will be minimal. The thrill is based in the journey, though, and if Laws of Attraction is anything like the screwball comedies it seeks to mimic, this could be a classic.

Brosnan already demonstrated in The Thomas Crowne Affair that despite perennial Hollywood thinking, a pair of thespians don't have to be in their 20s in order to creatic cinematic sparks together. Moore is one of the most beautiful and talented over-40 actresses the industry has ever seen, so the on-screen pairing of this duo in a romantic comedy by a rising director is glorious on paper. (David Mumpower/BOP)




Vital statistics for The Laws of Attraction
Main Cast Pierce Brosnan, Julianne Moore
Supporting Cast Parker Posey, Michael Sheen, Nora Dunn, Frances Fisher
Director Peter Howitt
Screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, Robert Harling
Distributor New Line Cinema
Trailer Click Here for Trailer
Official Site http://www.attractionmovie.com/
Rating PG-13
Screen Count 2,449
Talent in red has entry in The Big Picture



Comparison films for The Laws of Attraction
Title
Date
Opening
Adjusted Opening
Screens
PSA
Adj PSA
Total BO
Adjusted Total
Mult
America's Sweethearts 7/20/0130.18 32.21 3011 10024.00 10290.1 93.61 99.90 3.10
Thomas Crown Affair, The 8/6/9914.60 17.39 2427 6016.00 6868.7 69.30 82.58 4.75
Two Weeks Notice 12/20/0214.40 14.97 2755 5227.00 5227.0 93.35 97.05 6.48
War of the Roses, The 12/8/899.69 14.64 1259 7697.00 11188.6 84.13 127.14 8.68
Two Can Play That Game 9/7/017.72 8.23 1297 5953.00 6111.0 22.24 23.73 2.87


     


 
 

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