Review of Laurel Canyon (2003) by Andrea M — 26 Jul 2004

I'm a bit annoyed with myself for this review... I can't really figure out how to make it better. I just had a hard time getting the point across, I think. But you can see what you think:

[i][size=2]Laurel Canyon[/i] starts off with Christian Bale and Kate Beckinsale in bed together, in an intimate moment that sets the tone for the rest of the film: all about sex and relationships, and exceedingly believable. Bale's Sam and Beckinsale's Alex are engaged to be married, but first they leave her New England old-money surroundings for Los Angeles, where Sam will be doing his residency and Alex finishing her dissertation.

When they arrive at Sam's mother's house, however, they find that she is still there. Jane (Frances McDormand) is a record producer who keeps a pot-smoking, free-loving crowd, and while Sam's resentment of his mother keeps him away, Alex finds herself curiously drawn to the recording studio, where Jane's musician boyfriend Ian (Alessandro Nivola) is trying to come up with a new single. Meanwhile, Sam has to deal with the attentions of a colleague, Sara (Natascha McElhone).

Many films that attempt to be "slice-of-life" end up dull and often unrealistic. [i]Laurel Canyon[/i], on the other hand, is compelling pretty much all the way through, and the believability only drops in the final 15 minutes or so, when it seems like writer/director Lisa Cholodenko wasn't quite sure where to take things and so put in a fairly "Hollywood" resolution to the main plots (though the film itself ends openly). The performances are uniformly good, which certainly helps.

[i]Laurel Canyon[/i] is set in a world of privilege, yet it remains down to earth thanks to characters who actually act like human beings. Its point in examining the seeming fragility of fidelity is not entirely clear, but this doesn't make it much less interesting to track.

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