Review of A Life Less Ordinary (1997) by Christina W — 19 Oct 2008

The first half had me interested and mildly entertained, but after Holly Hunter and Delroy Lindo try to inexplicably kill Cameron Diaz and Ewan McGregor the film starts sucking pretty hard. Its obvious this is more of a studio effort than Boyle's other films, but there are a few moments between the studio-suckage where some inspired things can happen, succh as McGregor begging not to be killed in a weepy childlike voice or a scene where he tries to beat Stanely Tucci.

Diaz and McGregor are a mixmatched pair but their chemistry occasionally kicks off. McGregor has always been an interesting actor, showing he can be funny, dramatic and everything in between in films from Trainspotting to Moulin Rouge! to Big Fish.

Diaz has never been that good of an actress, and in this doesn't have anything new to offer her. She was at her best playing a parody of the cliche roles women like her recieve in There's Something About Mary.

Lastly, Holly Hunter can be great, and she has one funny scene here where she reads a trashy romance novel to erself, but she overacts waay too much and somehow manages to look really really ugly in a lot of her scenes.

I also HATED the claymation credits sequence. Overall, the first half has some pretty fun stuff in it, although it can be pretty hit-and-miss. I enjoyed McGragor the most, he brings an energy and realism to his character that everyone else lacks.

This is easliy Boyle's worst film, but these "boy and girl hate each other, get stuck together and fall in love with each other" are all rip-offs of great films like It Happened One Night anyways.