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COPYRIGHT 2003 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.
The opening credits of "Down with Love"are a thing of beauty, but then opening credits have become the best reason to make it to the movies on time. For pure visual snap, there has been nothing in the past year to match the credits of "Monsters, Inc."and, especially, "Catch Me If You Can,"and the new film conjures the same tricks: scrambled alphabets, sharply tilted lines, and a color scheme founded strictly on the concept of the Jelly Belly. For the ensuing movie, it's a tough act to follow.
"Down with Love"is a headlong exercise in retro style, and you could argue that the variety of pinks on show, from raging to dusty, indicate a movie blushing at its own presumption. Certainly, the sight of Ren?e Zellweger in the first scene suggests not so much a character as a powder puff with legs at the bottom and a smile at the other end. The city is New York, the year is 1962, and the story line is about as substantial as an anchovy. Zellweger plays Barbara Novak, who arrives in town to promote her first book, "Down with Love,"whose thesis is that women must learn to think, act, and--perish the thought--make love with the time-saving practicality of men.
Her opponent is Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor)--"ladies' man, man's man, man about town,"as the saying goes, and a star writer...
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