Film review: A Life Less Ordinary

Film review – Dagny – 12/11/97

The ubiquitous Ewan MacGregor you see him here, you see him there, this year you see him everywhere. In A Life Less Ordinary, by the film makers who brought us Shallow Grave, we see our boy Ewan playing yet another engaging loser. Alongside Ewan we have the less ubiquitous but still lovely Cameron Diaz, as yet another pouty rich girl. Despite this less than original combination, A Life Less Ordinary manages to deliver a little more than your average film. This movie not only treads a fine line between romance and reality, imagination and bad taste, but jumps over that line and sticks its tongue out at you.

This movie contains a range of genres that range from gritty realism to magic realism, from cartoonesque to hoky Hollywood. It saves itself from being seriously schizophrenic by retaining a central plotline that revolves around good old-fashioned romance, albeit with a post-modern 90s kind of edge. The framing device of two angels who must ensure that two mortals fall in love would be unforgivably sentimental were it not for Holly Hunter’s star turn as a kind of black comedy angelic terminator. If you didn’t know she was one of the good guys, you’d be truly frightened. It’s this kind of playing with usual conventions that gives the film a lot of its appeal.

Cameron Diaz doesn’t seem overly stretched in her role as the overindulged rich girl, but she gets to show some gumption and kick some butt when she turns the tables on her unlikely kidnapper. The romantic centre of the film is given vitality by the pairing of Diaz and MacGregor, who have an odd kind of chemistry that transcends their obvious mismatch. This pairing is echoed in the partnership between the two angels, who also form an emotional bond despite their differences. Ewan MacGregor is one of those actors who manages to be likeable even when he’s playing a whining loser, and in this film he’s essentially another nice lad who’s down on his luck. Much of the films humour comes from his bungled attempt to kidnap the rich girl and then cope with the fact that not only has she done this before, but she can do it far better than him. MacGregor is also the dreamer of the pair, and we can identify with his imaginings of a better life.

There’s a good deal of violence in this film, some of it funny, some of it stylish, and some of it horrible. Like all good black comedies, A Life Less Ordinary pushes the boundaries of what we can comfortably laugh at. Most of the minor characters are cartoonish in their grotesqueness, and they provide an effective foil for the two leads. There’s a lot about this film that should be wrong its a total mish-mash of styles, the plot line is far from original, and its often in bad taste. It seems to have more quirks than actual plot, but there’s still plenty of action. But somehow it gets it right, and you forget about how you think things ought to be. It’s a funny, stylish, and ultimately romantic film that despite its shortcomings doesn’t let go of its driving energy – Amor Vincit Omnia.

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