The Rewrite (2015)

Sorry, this movie sucks

One of my all time favorites.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Hugh Grant plays Keith Michaels, a raffish LA screenwriter who won an Oscar for his screenplay some years ago but his career has struggled since. Whatever he writes is not what the Hollywood producers are looking for, they want to see movies with a kick ass action girl.Estranged from his family, with rejected screenplays and short of cash his agent gets him a job teaching screen writing at a small university just off New York.As soon as he arrives he has a sexual relationship with one of his class student Karen (Bella Heathcote.) At a party he offends stuck up Professor Mary Weldon (Allison Janney) by insulting Jane Austen. He also has no interest in teaching his class or reading their fledgling scripts.However he soon finds inspired to teach by the work his class has produced and especially by one of his nerdy male student who produces a promising screenplay. He also falls for a mature student Holly (Marisa Tomei.) Keith who is arrogant even aloof at first decides it is important that he sticks with his class although Professor Weldon wants to see the back of him.There is nothing much original about the film, it has an easy charm, an amiable time waster and a good cast rounded off by JK Simmons as the department head.

Grant's a lesson in urbanity and wit in most of his movies but never as convincingly as here in this low budget but perfectly cast and beautifully written light comedy set in Binghamton, New York. The movie is about a Hollywood screenwriter who hasn't had a hit in years whose agent gets him a paying 'gig' as a college instructor teaching screen writing.Marisa Tomei gets into his class, J.K. Simmons is Head of his department, and Chris Elliott also teaches at the college and lives next door. Allison Janney plays a pivotal part as the fearsome Professor Weldon, the Head of the Ethics Committee, in front of which Grant is taken for having an innocent affair with one of his students.All in all I thought the comedic timing and direction near perfect and more than a little enjoyable. Clearly the stars here read the script and thought it delightful. With one caveat, that I've taught and live in a college town, I highly recommend. Hugh Grant fans will be especially enthralled but this should be a good choice for any guy too.

An award winning script writer, who has trouble getting another job, agrees to teach creative writing in a college in a small American town. The movie maybe says the story of a wash out celebrity who is resents the industry and the way it works and he needs to revalue himself and what he does for a living. It pushes in that romance, drama and some life meanings, and in the end, it gives you a mild movie that you will forget the next day. Sure the performances aren't bad, but they are not good either. They are just enough from actors who can give more. The story is not that original and not that interesting really, as it never goes deeper than the superficial relationship drama. In the end, it's a dramatic romantic comedy with some sparks of brilliance. So 3 out of 10.

Hugh Grant is aging gracefully, now in his early 50s and a bit more stocky and starting to look like Pierce Brosnan. Here he is Keith Michaels who some years earlier had written the screen play for a movie that was very popular. When he meets new people they often say "That is my favorite movie of all time." But Keith has not had a script idea accepted in some time and needs work. His agent suggests he take the job for one semester as writing teacher at a college in New York.So he flies from sunny and warm California to snowy and cold New York with a paid rental house and car. He decides he will do the minimum, collect his salary, and come up with his next script ideas. Students submit script ideas to be selected into his class, instead of actually reading the scripts he uses their social media profiles to select them. He gets an interesting mix including several very pretty girls. But he goes way too far when he tells the students, 5 minutes into the first class, write the rest of your script, it will take about 30 days, so our next class is in a month. Plus the quick affair with one of his pretty students doesn't help.The college has standards and they are enforced by Allison Janney as professor Mary Weldon who also is the head of the ethics committee. His task is made even more difficult when he insults her favorite author during a faculty social. So eventually to keep from getting fired he has to convince her that he made a couple of honest mistakes and that he really is making a positive difference in the lives of his students.One of his students is Marisa Tomei as Holly Carpenter, a single mother who also works at a number of different jobs when she is not in class. She and Keith strike up a friendship through all this and as the move ends it is not clear but we sense they may be getting together after all the dust settles.Also good is J.K. Simmons as Dr. Lerner, the head of the department Keith is in. He has a way of putting events into a realistic perspective and tells Keith, if that were my 18-yr-old daughter in college and you did that, I'd be after you and I'd probably kill you.All in all a bit better movie than I expected it to be.