US filmmaker Marc Lawrence’s romantic comedy The Rewrite deals with a well rehearsed topic: second chances. You know how it goes: someone who once had a thriving past now faces a grim present — until another someone, with a not-so-great present either, shows up and changes the whole scenario for the better. And so everyone gets to find their true talents, or revive the ones they had. Of course, there are variations on the formula, but that’s pretty much how it goes.
In The Rewrite, Keith Michaels (Hugh Grant) is a scriptwriter who once upon a time won an Oscar for a screenplay called Paradise Misplaced, which was largely about it never being too late to redeem yourself and start all over again.
But considering all of his other films have been critical and commercial failures, Keith no longer believes second chances take place in real life. With not enough money to make a living, he’s forced to move to the East Coast to teach screenwriting at a college.
Once there, he starts fooling around with a very young, great looking student of his. However, he eventually falls for Holly Carpenter (Marisa Tomei), another student who is about his age, a pretty and witty single mother.
So now the prospect of real romance is in the air — and some other stuff as well: the frustrated screenwriter becomes an inspiring professor that even manages to inspire himself.
As you can easily see at first glance, The Rewrite is a formula film. It’s not a bad one, but it surely doesn’t rise above the average at all. And in some ways, it’s below average. Yes, the many, many jokes and sharp one-liners about endless movies and Hollywood at large are funny enough to keep the film going — and, nonetheless, at a certain point they start feeling too repetitive, as if the film were on automatic pilot. You see them coming and it’s not that funny anymore.
And while Hugh Grant does Hugh Grant by the book, you may also get the feeling he’s doing early Woody Allen as well — you know: self-ridicule, sarcasm, cynicism, and inferiority complexes of all kinds. His performance is indeed fine, just like those of Marisa Tomei, Allison Janney, and J.K. Simmons (the Oscar-winning actor from Whiplash).
And while good performances do add to any film, The Rewrite’s sentimentality and trite developments — plus a desirable happy ending with a learning experience included — don’t do much to turn into a singular piece of work. The material is too thin to begin with.
In fact, Marisa Tomei is an engaging actress and the fact that her character is both underwritten and largely stereotyped is one clear sign that while many of the jokes might be clever, the film it’s not. To be fair, it actually calls for a rewrite.
Production notes
The Rewrite (US, 2014). Written and directed by Marc Lawrence. With Hugh Grant, Marisa Tomei, Allison Janney, J.K. Simmons, Bella Heathcote, Chris Elliott. Cinematography: Jonathan Brown. Editing: Ken Eluto. Running time: 107 minutes.
