Review of Life or Something Like It (2002) by Doctor S — 21 Mar 2014

"Haven't you heard the expression that a picture is worth a thousand words?".

"That's for people like you who don't know a thousand words.".

Ambitious newswoman (Jolie) is told by a street prophet (Shalhoub) during a local color interview that she will die in 7 days. Shaken, she reluctantly turns to easygoing smartass cameraman (Burns) for advice and comfort. Poorly executed, both as a story of a person reassessing her life to discover what's important, and as a romantic comedy which is short on comedy and some of the most unromantic dialogue you will ever hear, bickering and bargaining about "having sex" like it's an object as mundane as a bag of potato chips. The blame lies mostly within the screenplay because the stars try to sell it, but there's not enough substance. So inert is the soul of this movie that it couldn't even inspire a halfway decent poster, resulting in conceptual designs as flat as the paper they're printed on.

Here's a rare chance to see Jolie as a blond, I think she looks weird with those bouffant goldilocks but underneath she's as radiant as ever. In fact the camera pushes in so close that you may notice for the first time a small indentation in the skin on her right cheek. Edward Burns starts out boorish but develops a little charm along the way, although his high school drama instructor should've shitcanned that raspy whisper he calls a speaking voice.