Bovie Movie

James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News) directed this $50 million-plus romantic comedy, set in Manhattan. Dysfunctional, acid-tongued romance novelist Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson), who suffers from an obsessive-compulsive disorder, takes pride in his ability to offend. At a nearby cafe, the only waitress willing to stand up to his sarcastic tirades is Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt), a single mother struggling to raise her chronically asthmatic son. In Melvin’s West Village apartment building, talented contemporary artist Simon Nye (Greg Kinnear) lives across the hall from Melvin. Simon is the current darling of the New York art world, reason enough to draw Melvin’s verbal fire, but Simon’s gay lifestyle is further grist for the novelist’s malicious mill. These three New Yorkers, none of whom appears to have a chance in hell at finding true happiness, discover their fates intertwined because of the fourth complicated character in the piece, Verdell, a tiny Brussels Griffon dog (played by newcomer Jill, after a 15-week training program). Melvin seems to have no friends or family, and he lives alone, working on his 62nd book.

When Simon goes into the hospital after a brutal mugging, Melvin has to take care of Verdell, and the dog actually warms Melvin’s cold heart — to the degree that he sets up unsolicited medical care for Carol’s son. Eventually, Melvin is cornered into driving Simon and Carol to Baltimore, and during a hotel stopover, Melvin confesses to Carol, “You make me want to be a better man.” The trip becomes an odyssey of self-realization for all three. Locations included Brooklyn’s Prospect Park (Carol’s neighborhood) and Greenwich Village (where Melvin’s building is on 12th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues). Other exteriors were shot in downtown Los Angeles, where a dilapidated transient hotel at the corner of 4th Street and Main was transformed into the chic cafe where Carol works. Sets for the Simon/Melvin apartment interiors were erected on a soundstage at the Sony Pictures lot. Simon’s paintings were created for the film by New York artist Billy Sullivan, whose work is part of the modern art collection at NYC’s Metropolitian Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art.

Two women get a new and unusual perspective on the doctor/patient relationship in this romantic comedy. Rafi Gardet (Uma Thurman) is a woman in her mid-thirties who has recently gone through a messy divorce. Rafi has been seeing an analyst, Lisa Metzger (Meryl Streep), as she struggles to get back on her feet emotionally and look for new love. Rafi meets a man named David Bloomberg (Bryan Greenberg), and the two quickly hit it off, but Rafi isn’t sure if she should pursue the relationship, since David is only 23 years old. After discussing the burgeoning romance during one of their weekly sessions, Lisa urges Rafi to take a plunge with David, and not be afraid to seek out the companionship she needs. However, there’s something about David that Lisa doesn’t know — he’s her son. Rafi doesn’t know that Lisa is David’s mother, either, and both psychiatrist and patient are thrown for a loop when they learn the truth. Prime was originally intended to star Sandra Bullock as Rafi, but she dropped out of the project shortly before filming began, reportedly due to disagreements with the director over the script, with Thurman taking her place.

This teen comedy from Disney is based on a popular novel by Meg Cabot and directed by Garry Marshall. Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) is a teenage klutz who’s openly mocked by the popular Lana Thomas (pop singer Mandy Moore). In fact, Mia’s only friend at her exclusive prep school is the socially outcast Lilly (Heather Matarazzo). Mia’s life takes a dramatic turn, however, when her mom announces that her late biological father was in actuality the crown prince of a small European nation, Genovia. Now Mia is the sole heir to the throne, and her grandmother, Queen Clarisse Renaldi (Julie Andrews) wants to tutor the awkward teen in royal behavior. It’s a daunting task given Mia’s lax table manners, poise, and hair care, but the girl perseveres with some makeover help from her grandmother’s security chief Hector Elizondo) and a style expert (Larry Miller). In the meantime, Mia’s romantic affections are torn between the handsome, popular Josh (Erik Von Detten) and the more appropriate Michael (Robert Schwartzman), who also happens to be Lilly’s brother. The Princess Diaries is the second film from Whitney Houston’s production shingle after the television version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (1997).

The Beatles’ early days as a struggling bar band are depicted in this fact-based drama, which tells the little-known story of original member Stuart Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff). A close friend of John Lennon, Sutcliffe acts as the band’s original bassist, accompanying them on their early gigs in Liverpool and Hamburg, Germany. The friendship becomes strained, however, when Sutcliffe falls in love with a German art student and starts to question his commitment to the band. With Sutcliffe’s story taking center stage, the stories of the more famous Beatles largely fade into the background. The exception is John Lennon, thanks to a fierce performance by Ian Hart, who had previously portrayed the musician in the more intimate and provocative The Hours and the Times. While Backbeat does provide a new perspective on the band’s beginning, and numerous opportunities for a group of modern rock musicians to recreate the band’s energetic early performances, it never makes Sutcliffe’s story seem more than a footnote to musical history.

A Perfect Murder is based on Frederick Knott’s play Dial M for Murder, filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1954. Married to commodities trader Stephen Taylor (Michael Douglas), Emily Bradford (Gwyneth Paltrow) is romantically involved with artist David Shaw (Viggo Mortensen). Aware of this affair, Stephen researches David’s past, visits his loft studio, and informs David that he knows about his aliases, jail sentences, and various cons and scams directed at rich women. Then Stephen offers David $500,000 to murder Emily, and David agrees. The plan is calculated to make the murder look like an accident, but events soon go on an unscheduled course. Enter Detective Mohamed Karaman (David Suchet). Knott’s original play opened June 1952 in London, followed by a New York run that began October 1952. Several books and sources describe how Hitchcock’s film was made in 3-D but neglect to mention that, despite trade screenings in 3-D, Dial M for Murder was originally released in 1954 with ordinary, flat 2-D prints. It was finally shown to audiences in 3-D during the mid-’80s.