Laws of Attraction ***** DIVORCES can be so messy, specially when it comes to the division of the spoils and who takes what away from the marriage. The acri
monious slanging matches that often go on between separating couples can become vicious with each trying to hide assets from the other.
Which is where the specialist divorce lawyer comes in.
Laws of Attraction tells the story of two such New York lawyers, Audrey Woods (Julianne Moore) and Daniel Rafferty (Pierce Brosnan) who are tops in their jobs, each assuring his clients that he has never lost a case. Their first meeting in court with Woods representing the wife and Rafferty representing the husband is won by Rafferty, and thereafter it's competition time between them to see who can win the most cases.
Honours are about even when Woods lands the wife of a big rock star as a client, only to find in the middle of a celebratory lunch with her firm that Rafferty has pinched her. Woods immediately manages to be taken on defending the husband. This eventually sends the two lawyers to Ireland to sort our who gets the rock star's castle and thereby hangs the tale as the laws of attraction get mixed up in the laws of divorce and property division.
Cleverly written and well directed by Peter Howitt, this five-star rom.com. is full of fast paced witty dialogue, and wraps a fairly serious message in sugar-coating by poking fun at relationships in general and divorce in particular. It is excellently acted with just the right amount of tongue-in-cheek insouciance that keeps one in a nearly continuous state of chuckle.
Watch out for a great performance from France Fisher as Wood's perennially young mother.
Jersey Girl***
Another rom.com, Jersey Girl is not nearly so well written as Laws of Attraction. This may be because the subject matter doesn't really lend itself to the comedy genre. But I hasten to add this is a personal point of view. I don't find grief a subject to be made fun of.
Dealing with the grief of losing a spouse after a short marriage, Jersey Girl seeks to find the funny side of a father coping with grief by being a single parent to his daughter. Some of this section is heartbreakingly funny, but the comedy wears thin as Kevin Smith, who writes and directs, fails to come up with original, innovative ideas and sticks with stereotypical "funny" solutions to the situations in which he places his characters.
Oliver Trinke (Ben Affleck) is a successful New York publicist, married to Gertrude (J. Lo) or Gertie as she's mostly known. She dies and he's left to bring up their daughter little Gertie (charmingly performed by Raquel Castro). He dumps Gertie on his father in New Jersey and virtually refuses to have anything to do with her until finally Grandpop gets fed up, goes back to his sanitary engineer job and leaves Ollie literally holding the baby.
Ollie has a very important presentation to make at which he arrives late with a yelling Gertie, whose nappy needs changing, loses his temper in public and his job. He goes to live with his father, starts a new life and the film jumps forward to Gertie at seven years old.
The dialogue becomes funnier at this point when Ollie meets Maya (Liv Tyler), a student and video shop assistant and the story gets better once it's away from his grief and he's starting to think about dating again. Spot a couple of uncredited, very famous guest artists in this good-in-parts movie which has a poor beginning but warms up to a three-and-a half star middle and ending.
Theatre News:
The teenage group of Harare Repertory Players, Repteens, is back in full swing after the holidays. Catering to young thespians from 13 to 19, participants get to have much fun and learn all sorts of theatre disciplines, from acting and stagecraft to management and technical production aspects. Sessions take place in the Repteens room behind the main theatre, in the members car park on Fridays starting at around 5.30PM. For further information phone the Reps secretary on 336706 or 335850.
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