Juliet, Naked is an agreeable and exceedingly pleasant film. Seriously, it's difficult for me to imagine anyone having a level of genuine disdain for Jesse Peretz's mild-mannered romantic comedy. It's a sweet story about family and finding yourself and it's set in a nice little town in England and Rose Byrne and Ethan Hawke are in it. What's not to like?
But you have to know what it is. If you decide to go, you have to understand that you're buying a ticket for something that will surely evaporate from your brain almost instantly. You're in for 96 minutes of chuckles and smiles, but not a whole lot more than that. Don't get me wrong, this adaptation of Nick Hornsby's novel is a perfectly satisfactory bit of likable rom-com fun. It's just working in a decidedly minor key.
Well, that's not to say there aren't a few hiccups along the way.
The film follows Annie (Byrne), a woman who feels stuck in life. She has lived in the same seaside British town for years, operating the town's history museum after her late father's passing. Her professor boyfriend, Duncan (Chris O'Dowd), was initially a breath of fresh air, but she has grown increasingly tired of his belief in his own intellectual superiority. She's also tired of his obsession with Tucker Crowe. Duncan is utterly transfixed by the work of an alternative rock artist who disappeared from the scene long ago, even running a fan site that creates theories about the singer's work. Tucker's most famous album is Juliet, written in the aftermath of a particularly cruel break-up.
One day, Duncan gets his hands on a copy of Juliet, Naked, an early demo tape filled with rough recordings of what would later become Tucker's masterwork. Duncan is enamored by these songs, while Annie finds them to be ugly rough cuts of what they became. This causes something of a schism in their relationship, even leading Annie to write a scathing review of the demo on Duncan's website. Miraculously, her review catches the attention of Tucker himself (Hawke). The two become pen pals, sharing the intimate details of their lives and becoming good friends in the process. As Annie and Tucker grow closer, she finally starts to break out of her shell, all thanks to an unexpected relationship with the most elusive of all rock stars.
Things start off rather nicely, as director Peretz sets up his characters and central disagreements with grace and poise. Eventually, a problem emerges: Juliet, Naked has no clear idea of who its main character should be. There's obviously no mandate stating that a film must have a single main character, as plenty of films are comfortable with multiple leads. But in this instance, Annie and Tucker are going through almost completely different journeys, which forces the film to purposefully choose who it wants to focus on at any given moment. For long sections of the story, our clear lead is Annie, a sympathetic woman who has had to deal with a life of monotony and exhausting consistency. We get to know her struggles and aspirations, and we see a chance for her to break free with this unexpected connection. Byrne, one of the most supremely talented comedic actresses of her generation, gives Annie the proper amount of warmth and melancholy spirit, shining in this role and moving the film along swimmingly.
When Hawke's Tucker first appears, he's a side character, a dream guy serving as an outlet for Annie to voice her innermost thoughts. Slowly but surely, Tucker's dramatic personal life takes center stage, pushing our central character to background for a good chunk of the runtime. Yes, the film does return to Annie's core struggle, but it drifts away from her perspective long enough to give any viewer pause. In the process, Peretz and the screenwriters (Evgenia Peretz, Jim Taylor, and Tamara Jenkins) sacrifice the film's feminist ethos. A story about a woman gaining the strength to make her own choices becomes a story about a man putting the pieces back together after a lifetime of bad choices. Hawke is quite likable as the deadbeat rock star, but the character's personal strife is far too prevalent in a movie that doesn't belong to him.
Beyond the push-and-pull between Annie and Tucker, Juliet, Naked certainly has its charms. Peretz has a way of sustaining comic momentum in a quiet manner, slowly building on jokes until they boil over into something hilarious. Chris O'Dowd is also quite good as Annie's pop culture-minded boyfriend, operating as the mansplainer-in-chief of this tricky relationship. And while there's surely a good bit of drama for everyone involved, this is one of those buoyant, visually standard rom-coms where it's hard to find much serious tension. And that's not a bad thing. Gorgeous seaside towns, soft rock cues, nice actors- fun stuff!
Nonetheless, there is still something rather modest and a tad underwhelming about Juliet, Naked. Even when it shifts back to Annie's orbit, the film ends on a flat note, tidily resolving its string of incidents without really earning any investment on the part of the audience. It's witty and appealing, yet it's still the kind of movie that inspires little more than a smile and a shrug.
THE FINAL GRADE: B- (6.5/10)
Images: Roadside Attractions/IMDb
But you have to know what it is. If you decide to go, you have to understand that you're buying a ticket for something that will surely evaporate from your brain almost instantly. You're in for 96 minutes of chuckles and smiles, but not a whole lot more than that. Don't get me wrong, this adaptation of Nick Hornsby's novel is a perfectly satisfactory bit of likable rom-com fun. It's just working in a decidedly minor key.
Well, that's not to say there aren't a few hiccups along the way.
The film follows Annie (Byrne), a woman who feels stuck in life. She has lived in the same seaside British town for years, operating the town's history museum after her late father's passing. Her professor boyfriend, Duncan (Chris O'Dowd), was initially a breath of fresh air, but she has grown increasingly tired of his belief in his own intellectual superiority. She's also tired of his obsession with Tucker Crowe. Duncan is utterly transfixed by the work of an alternative rock artist who disappeared from the scene long ago, even running a fan site that creates theories about the singer's work. Tucker's most famous album is Juliet, written in the aftermath of a particularly cruel break-up.
One day, Duncan gets his hands on a copy of Juliet, Naked, an early demo tape filled with rough recordings of what would later become Tucker's masterwork. Duncan is enamored by these songs, while Annie finds them to be ugly rough cuts of what they became. This causes something of a schism in their relationship, even leading Annie to write a scathing review of the demo on Duncan's website. Miraculously, her review catches the attention of Tucker himself (Hawke). The two become pen pals, sharing the intimate details of their lives and becoming good friends in the process. As Annie and Tucker grow closer, she finally starts to break out of her shell, all thanks to an unexpected relationship with the most elusive of all rock stars.
Things start off rather nicely, as director Peretz sets up his characters and central disagreements with grace and poise. Eventually, a problem emerges: Juliet, Naked has no clear idea of who its main character should be. There's obviously no mandate stating that a film must have a single main character, as plenty of films are comfortable with multiple leads. But in this instance, Annie and Tucker are going through almost completely different journeys, which forces the film to purposefully choose who it wants to focus on at any given moment. For long sections of the story, our clear lead is Annie, a sympathetic woman who has had to deal with a life of monotony and exhausting consistency. We get to know her struggles and aspirations, and we see a chance for her to break free with this unexpected connection. Byrne, one of the most supremely talented comedic actresses of her generation, gives Annie the proper amount of warmth and melancholy spirit, shining in this role and moving the film along swimmingly.
When Hawke's Tucker first appears, he's a side character, a dream guy serving as an outlet for Annie to voice her innermost thoughts. Slowly but surely, Tucker's dramatic personal life takes center stage, pushing our central character to background for a good chunk of the runtime. Yes, the film does return to Annie's core struggle, but it drifts away from her perspective long enough to give any viewer pause. In the process, Peretz and the screenwriters (Evgenia Peretz, Jim Taylor, and Tamara Jenkins) sacrifice the film's feminist ethos. A story about a woman gaining the strength to make her own choices becomes a story about a man putting the pieces back together after a lifetime of bad choices. Hawke is quite likable as the deadbeat rock star, but the character's personal strife is far too prevalent in a movie that doesn't belong to him.
Beyond the push-and-pull between Annie and Tucker, Juliet, Naked certainly has its charms. Peretz has a way of sustaining comic momentum in a quiet manner, slowly building on jokes until they boil over into something hilarious. Chris O'Dowd is also quite good as Annie's pop culture-minded boyfriend, operating as the mansplainer-in-chief of this tricky relationship. And while there's surely a good bit of drama for everyone involved, this is one of those buoyant, visually standard rom-coms where it's hard to find much serious tension. And that's not a bad thing. Gorgeous seaside towns, soft rock cues, nice actors- fun stuff!
Nonetheless, there is still something rather modest and a tad underwhelming about Juliet, Naked. Even when it shifts back to Annie's orbit, the film ends on a flat note, tidily resolving its string of incidents without really earning any investment on the part of the audience. It's witty and appealing, yet it's still the kind of movie that inspires little more than a smile and a shrug.
THE FINAL GRADE: B- (6.5/10)
Images: Roadside Attractions/IMDb
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