Directed
by Rob Reiner
Screenplay by Jeremy Leven, Adam Scheinman, Andrew Scheinman, and
Rob Reiner
Luke Wilson .... Alex Sheldon/Adam Shipley
Chino XL .... Tony/Flamenco Dancer #2
Lobo Sebastian .... Bobby/Flamenco Dancer #1
Rob Reiner .... Wirschafter
Kate Hudson .... Emma Dinsmore/Ylva/Elsa/Eldora/Anna
Paul Wilson .... Whistling John Shaw
David Paymer .... John Shaw
Sophie Marceau .... Polina Delacroix
Alexander Wauthier .... Andre Delacroix
Leili Kramer .... Michele Delacroix
Rip Taylor .... Polina's Father
Gigi Birmingham .... Madame Blanche (as Gigi Bermingham)
Jordan Lund .... Claude
Produced
by
Todd Black .... producer
Jason Blumenthal .... executive producer
Alan Greisman .... producer
Peter Guber .... executive producer
James A. Holt .... co-producer
Jeremy Leven .... producer
Rob Reiner .... producer
Elie Samaha .... producer
Tracee Stanley .... co-producer
Jeffrey Stott .... executive producer
Steve Tisch .... executive producer
Original Music by Michelle Branch (composer "All You Wanted")
and Marc Shaiman
Cinematography by Gavin Finney
Film Editing by Alan Edward Bell , Robert Leighton
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sexual content and some language.
Runtime: USA:96 min
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM,
and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG
"Adam
Shipley had given up on love. Art was to be his mistress. And so
it was that in the summer of 1924, he took a sabbatical from Andover
to write, if not the Great American Novel, certainly something that
would make the world sit up and take notice."
Alex
Sheldon (LUKE WILSON) is an author whose writer's block is the least
of his problems - he also happens to be flat broke and owes Cuban
loan sharks $100,000. After hanging him out the window and destroying
his laptop computer, the thugs give Alex an ultimatum: pay up in
30 days or wind up dead. The only way Alex is going to get that
kind of money is by finishing his novel, which is currently less
than one sentence long. He's got some idea of what he wants the
story to be; as he puts it, "It's about the powerlessness of
being in love, how it devours the insides of a person like a deadly
virus. It's a comedy." He just can't seem to get it out onto
paper. Now lacking both inspiration and a laptop, Alex secures the
services of opinionated stenographer Emma Dinsmore (KATE HUDSON)
to help him complete the novel and get paid by his publisher in
time to save his skin.
The
story of Adam Shipley (also portrayed by LUKE WILSON) soon begins
to emerge. The fictional Adam is a romantic young writer who has
been hired to tutor the children of Polina Delacroix (SOPHIE MARCEAU),
a chic, gorgeous French woman in dire financial straits. The story
that reveals itself is of the obsessive love that Adam develops
for Polina while ignoring the potential for true love with Polina's
au pair, known in successive incarnations as the stern Swede Ylva,
Elsa the bawdy German, Eldora the Spanish beauty and down-to-earth
American Anna, (all played by KATE HUDSON).
Meanwhile,
Alex and Emma spend their days and nights working together on the
novel. Emma challenges his ideas at every turn, and her initially
irritating but undeniably intriguing input begins to influence Alex
and his story. Soon, real life begins to imitate art, and art, to
imitate life.
Review
by
MELINDA LEDMAN BLOG
HJMLedman@yahoo.com. Melinda
Ledman is a graduate of Baylor University with a Bachelor’s
degree in English. During college, she worked on the film Letter
From Waco (director Don Howard), which won the award for best documentary
feature in the 1997 South by Southwest Film Festival. After she
and her husband Rob had their first child in September 2002, she
began free-lance writing full time. In addition to writing reviews,
she most enjoys writing original screenplays. She gratefully serves
God after 12 years of alcoholism, and appreciates grace and freedom
on a whole new level.
Alex
and Emma is an impressive film which explores its themes within
a fantastic structure. I was surprised at the negative reviews this
film received, but I can understand why. If you go into it looking
for a purely romantic, feel-good movie, you will be disappointed….but
only because it does not stop there. The writers (4) and director
(Rob Reiner) used advanced literary structures to make great statements
about art and life. Additionally, I thought the jokes were quite
funny and ironic. It seemed to have more comedy than romance (where
the problem is typically the other way around) and the jokes were
buried in the script so that you had to be listening to catch them.
These were some of my favorite things about the movie:
Format:
The
script follows a typical “frame story” format where
the first plot line tells the same story as the second, and the
characters correspond with each other. The viewer is asked to
understand each story as a clue to the other, so that in the end,
one arrives at the whole truth. The movie depicts Alex as a writer
and Emma as his stenographer. As Alex dictates his story to Emma,
the characters in the novel bear a striking (and intentional)
resemblance to the characters in the film. In Alex’s novel,
the main character Adam (Alex’s double) falls in love with
the beautiful, charming, seemingly wealthy, hard-to-get Polina.
While staying at her house for a summer as a tutor, he meets and
also falls in love with the ever-changing “au pair”
(Emma’s double). Adam (Alex) must later choose between the
two loves of his life. Besides the fact that the four main characters
have similar names, the novel he writes also reveals the changing
nature of their relationship. Subsequently, both stories unravel
together. The film also uses allegory as it explores the relationship
between art (Polina) and experience or real life (Emma). Is it
possible to have both? More on that later.
As
a writer, I am particularly partial to the idea of using stories
as a backdrop for reality. It can be said that stories are an
excellent medium for expressing and exploring truths. Both the
frame story and the allegory accomplish this feat. But, the parable
also accomplishes this feat and that was the teaching format Jesus
used most often. Jesus regularly explained complex truths using
every day scenarios. In fact, I would say he avoided dissertations
and lectures, and rather embraced the power of an allegory.
Commitment
and Intimacy:
When
we first meet Alex, he is portrayed as a desperate, poor, hypochondriac
who has suffered a severe blow to his emotions. Having been dumped
by his ex-girlfriend, he experiences writers block and cannot
seem to find his muse. Under pressure from the Cuban mafia, he
whispers a quick prayer in the closet, “God help me.”
Enter Emma one scene later. He has lured her to his home under
the false pretense of being a lawyer in need of a stenographer.
Thus, he begins the relationship with a lie. Nevertheless
with some prodding, Emma decides to help him. Alex explains (at
her prompting) that his previous book was about a man so afraid
of commitment that he thought it would kill him. Nothing has apparently
changed. As the two continue working together, Alex suddenly asks,
“Who are you?” revealing that over the course of several
weeks, he has never taken the time to get to know her. Just as
they are getting close, however, Alex tells yet another lie. Emma
finally asks about the character Polina, and Alex claims she was
an amalgam, a combination of many different women in his life.
As Alex and Emma become closer and closer, Alex wants to develop
a level of commitment and intimacy (as evidenced by his character
Adam who becomes increasingly attracted to Anna because she is
“comfortable”), but continues to fear it. It is not
until Alex is faced with losing Emma forever (when the real Polina
appears) that he finally faces his fears and admits that she is
the only one he trusts.
Since
we all have issues with vulnerability, intimacy and commitment,
this movie appeals to everyone. How will we recover from a broken
heart? Who is trustworthy in this world? Who deserves the investment
of our time, energy and love? The same answers are true for everyone:
someone who loves us despite our imperfections and who stands
by their commitment to us. God is the most reliable because he
is not tainted by the sin of humanity. He is able to love unconditionally
(“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”)
and loves to the end (“He who promised is faithful”).
Allegory:
Art
vs. Experience
I
saved this section for last because it is my favorite part of
the movie, and because it is the most difficult to explain. The
allegory was blatantly stated as Alex dictated the opening lines
of his new novel, “Adam Shipley had given up on love. Art
was to be his mistress.” In many ways, the mistress character,
Polina, represents the pursuit of art and excellence in one’s
field. It is no mistake that the character Adam is enchanted with
the beauty, mystique, wealth and passion represented by Polina.
It is also no mistake that she is somewhat of an illusion. Not
only is she chronically poor because of her expensive habits,
she also lacks a true passion that comes from commitment. Her
flighty ways suggest that she is always on the wave of the next
trend or opportunity.
Emma
represents the antithesis of artistic expression as she
tries to simplify, solidify and make concrete everything in Alex’s
story. She expresses her opinion that he can’t write a story
without knowing the ending first, consistently attempts to transform
Alex’s characters into predictable archetypes, claims that
she does not believe in love at first sight, and balks at the
unrealistic and insincere parts of his story. She represents life
on earth, the reality that people deal with daily, which I will
call experience.
Alex
represents a strange combination of the two, art being transformed
by reality. When we meet Alex, he represents the true
nature of art founded in idealism. He has a story, but can’t
get it out on paper. He is broke. He is under pressure to perform.
He is a gambler. In a conversation with Emma about the book, Alex
claims that his main character (Adam/himself) prefers passion
over propriety as he makes decisions about love. However, the
art and experience quickly begin to merge. After accidentally
ruining several pages of the manuscript, Anna tries to rewrite
the pages in her own words. She learns that her own attempts are
a poor substitute, and that experience without the beauty of art
is harsh and unfriendly. Likewise, Alex experiences writer’s
block in the middle of his story and must go “see the world”
to unleash his imagination. He realizes that art draws from life,
and that experience is necessary to continue his work. As their
relationship grows, Alex begins to see that art (Polina) is flighty
and unreliable, and that experience (Anna/Emma) has a deep strength.
Yet, he loves them both equally. How will he choose one over the
other? In a wonderfully creative way, the writers of this film
weave the two together so that in the end, Alex has them both.
By embracing Emma, he embraces the concrete, the experience of
life, the commitment. And in doing so, he transforms into the
purest form of art, one that is an expression of reality. His
final plea to her is that he is a writer, and all he has is words
to express his love (experience).
Wow,
the concept of art vs. experience has about one million spiritual
applications. Where do I start? God created humans in
his image. Are we the artistic outflow of God’s heart? Although
tainted by our own sin, we cannot deny that all of the good in
this world comes from God. We did not create ourselves to love.
Then, there’s the dichotomy of passion vs. security. In
art, there is passion, and in experience, there is deep strength
and knowledge. Who ever said that we should live without passion?
Alex makes this point clearly. Life would be miserable without
passion and adventure. God asks us to not lean on our own understanding
(there’s adventure), but also asks us to use wisdom as we
live our lives. After all, it’s a frightful thing to imagine
what life would be like if we followed our unrestrained passion
to its end. Now about marriage, the same concept applies. Marriage
is the perfect institution created by God to give both stability
and passion. And what about talents (art expressed through writing,
singing, painting, accounting, volunteering, “your talent
here” )? The concept of using one’s God-given gifts
to their highest calling is a concrete teaching of Christ (Parable
of the Talents). We are told not to waste our time here, but to
use our talents, our finances, our intellect, and our resources
to show God’s love to others. Much like this film suggests,
experience is a rich resource. We can understand Biblical truths,
develop empathy, learn valuable life lessons, and share those
insights with others who need guidance.
Your
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What are your personal thoughts? I also welcome your spiritual
concerns and prayer needs. I will correspond with you, usually
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