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DVD Review: “The Rewrite” Is Delightful And Engaging

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An Oscar-winning writer in a slump leaves Hollywood to teach screenwriting at a college on the East Coast, where he falls for a single mom taking classes there.

Hugh Grant has always managed to ooze charisma and appeal. He has played the likable dork in such movies as “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Nine Months” and “Notting Hill.” Even in “The Rewrite,” although he has most certainly aged but aged gracefully, he still has the fundamental characteristics needed to keep audiences interested in him and his movies. In “The Rewrite,” he plays Keith Michaels, an Oscar-winning writer who has fallen into a slump. With Hollywood apparently going through a recession, his agent can’t even get him a job on reality TV but she informs him that a teaching position has become available in the University of Binghamton in New York, home of the Spiedie sandwich and the creator of “The Twilight Zone,” Rod Serling.

Granted, while Keith most certainly feels like he’s in an episode of that show once he arrives there, he very begrudgingly takes the job as he is desperate and has no other source of income. He teaches a screenwriting class and immediately realizes what a mistake it was as he feels that writing cannot be taught, you either have the gift or you don’t but over time, he comes to understand that it’s not him doing the teaching but the students who are teaching him. When he becomes romantically involved with one of his older students, the university discovers this and he is told that if he leaves of his own accord, nothing will happen and life will go on. Otherwise, he will have to go before an ethics tribunal and argue his case if he has any desire to stay.

When his agent calls him with a great offer to come back to Hollywood, he must search deep within himself and make the decision to leave or stay. The movie is stereotypical, you know the ending before you even get there but Mr. Grant and an assortment of wonderful character actors, including J.K. Simmons, Marisa Tomei and Allison Janney, elevate the movie above what could have been another conventional tale and breathe new life into an antiquated genre. Director Marc Lawrence (“Two Weeks Notice,” “Miss Congeniality”) and Mr. grant have worked together several times before and he knows exactly how to get an amusing yet engaging performance out of his leading man. I thoroughly enjoyed “The Rewrite,” I laughed out loud several times and would highly recommend it.

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James McDonald

Originally from Dublin, Ireland, James is a Movie Critic with 40 years of experience in the film industry as an Award-Winning Filmmaker. He is also a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association.