New comedy teaches common
life lesson
By Heather L. Nicholson
Daily Cougar Staff
What would you do if you had only one week
to live? Angelina Jolie explores the possibilities of the true meaning
of life in a role completely new
to her. Life or Something Like It is the
latest feel-good movie with a moral lesson for us all.
Photo courtesy of Twentieth
Century Fox
Angelina Jolie and Edward
Burns star in the new romantic comedy Life or Something Like It.
Jolie is known for roles in films such
as Gia, Girl Interrupted and Tomb Raider, in which she portrays dark characters
in dark dilemmas. Her
personal life is no exception to this
persona — she displays long, black hair and boasts about the vial of blood
she hangs around her neck.
In her most recent role — that of a self-absorbed
news reporter in Seattle — Jolie is light-hearted, bubbly and blond. Numerous
shots in the film
are spent on close-ups of Jolie's omnipresent
smile, bright eyes and bleach-blond hair.
Her nemesis Pete is played by Edward Burns.
Burns has been seen in such recent films as Sidewalks in New York and Fifteen
Minutes. The
two characters play devil's advocate during
the first 30 minutes of the film. Practical jokes and snappy insults describe
their relationship with an
underlying layer of flirting that foreshadows
their future love interest.
Life is perfect for Jolie's character,
Lanie Kerrigan. She is engaged to a professional baseball player, works
as a local television news anchor,
has perfect friends and is in line for
a network job. During a street interview with a bum who claims he is a
prophet, her untimely fate is revealed.
Tony Shalhoub, who also co-stars in the
Coen brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There, plays Prophet Jack. Prophet Jack
predicts to television
audiences that the Seahawks will win the
evening's game, that in the morning it will hail and that Lanie has only
one week left to live. Of course,
the self-centered reporter doesn't take
any of this to heart until the Seahawks win and the morning brings a hail
shower.
The rest of the story unfolds rather quickly,
leaving nothing to the audience's surprise. The film doesn't focus on the
prophet's prediction or
Lanie's demise. Instead, filmmakers attempt
to portray a moral lesson for audiences.
Lanie begins to realize her perfect life
is not so perfect and goes on a drunken life-altering journey of taking
no showers, never changing clothes
and succumbing to bad breath.
The new bad-hygiene look attracts Pete
and together the two toil to make the most out of Lanie's week and cope
with the final day. Audiences
will find the film's humor worthwhile
and the message of "live every moment like it is the last" is duly noted.
Nothing makes the film more interesting
than the impromptu rendition of "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones. The
scene with the hit song tries to
show audiences that when people hit rock
bottom and death is knocking at their door, nothing is more feel-good than
rock music.
