America's sweethearts

Year of release : 2001

Run time : 1h41m

Genre : Comedy / Romance

Cast : John Cusack, Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Billy Crystal, Christopher Walken, Stanley Tucci, Hank Azaria, Seth Green, Alan Arkin

The movie was co-written by Billy Crystal.

The veteran publicist Lee Phillips was fired so he is packing his things. As he does so, the studio head (the same man who fired him) is asking him to watch the movie 'Time over time' with him, directed by a problematic man, Hal Weidmann. The movie seems to have only the starting credits, as in, only the movie title and the names of the two leads, husband and wife, at the time labeled "America's sweethearts", Gwen Harrison and Eddie Thomas.

The director insists to show it to everyone at the upcoming press junket.

The studio head begs Lee to help him, so he hires Lee back, as the man wants his old job back, and Lee decides to have the premiere at a secluded resort which just opened, so the press won't be able to leave when they find out there's no movie.

Lee decides to convince the press and the public that Gwen and Eddie are back together. Easier said than done, as Gwen cheated on Eddie on set of the said movie, and is still with the Spanish man, and Eddie is in a sort of mental facility for 6 months and a half now, trying to deal with the separation, as he still loves her, and is trying to get over her (It's been a year and a half since the break-up,when Eddie tried to crash his motorcycle into Gwen and her lover's diner table).

Lee calls Gwen's sister, who is her assistant, and asks her to make it work for him and his plan with his sister.

Gwen is very spoiled, and has been through a rough patch since the separation, as her new releases (without Eddie, as they've been in a lot of movies together) haven't been a hit in the states,but a miss. Kiki,her sister, convinces her to go, telling her it's gonna boost her career and image (both have been in the dumpster since she left Eddie).

Eddie is trying to get closure and find his peace at a wellness retreat / mental facility, but Lee pays his guru / adviser to let him go.

At the secluded hotel, Lee has to deal with Gwen's ego, and Eddie's need to be with Gwen, while Gwen only thinks about herself, wanting to serve Eddie the divorce papers.

Kiki seems to have been in love with Eddie the whole time, but Eddie only seems to care about Gwen who doesn't care about anyone but herself.

The movie was entertaining, a light romantic comedy. The characters, are so and so, as most of them only seem to care about themselves or their interests,which is the same thing. Gwen and her Spanish lover are annoying. The Spanish guy has this over the top accent, like he's a caricature of a real person.

Even Eddie, due to how he treats Kiki, is unlikeable. Lee, although pretends to be their friend, leaks tapes to create stir around the movie, so people would, I guess, talk about it, for there is no movie,so he's the worst of them all !

I did like the places where they filmed the movie, the houses looked idyllic.

The acting was so and so, although all the actors involved are usually great. I think they were told to over act when they play the characters in the movie scenes inside the movie ( there are quite a few scenes of them from the movies they were in together, since the leading characters are actors).

Larry King makes a longer cameo appearance.

The visual effects are good.

The soundtrack was Ok.

The movie grossed 138.3 million dollars at the box office, being a success, since it was made with 46 million dollars. That being said, the critics only gave it a rating of 33% ,stating the characters were unsympathetic being only funny in spurs (which is true),while the audience gave it a B on an A to F scale.

Rating : Worth a watch !