Review of Romance & Cigarettes (2005) by Will W — 15 Sep 2007

I thought it sounded interesting when I first read about it recently--a musical comedy from director John Turturro and producers Joel and Ethan Coen and starring James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Steve Buscemi, Mandy Moore, Mary-Louise Parker, Christopher Walken, Eddie Izzard, Elaine Stritch and Amy Sedaris.

Wow, with such a wonderful cast, the movie has to be great!

Silly me. "Romance & Cigarettes" is just plain awful. It was filmed back in 2005, but it was only released in New York City a few weeks ago--BUT it is available on PAL Region 2 DVD, which is how I--unfortunately--got to see it.

I just wasn't expecting it to be so bad. It's not a comedy because it sure isn't very funny. Weird maybe--and often boring--but definitely not funny. And the musical numbers aren't very good--except for Sarandon's Janis Joplin number in a church, which isn't too bad. After that "high point", the film takes a major nosedive. If you don't want me to ruin the movie for you, skip to the next paragraph: Here's the plot in a nutshell--it's about a guy (Gandolfini) who cheats on his wife (Sarandon) with a nasty slut (Winslet)--this is the romance part of the title--and then he ends up dying in the end from lung cancer--this is the cigarettes part of the title. It's a real laugh riot.

However, I couldn't take my eyes off the TV. I kept thinking "this has got to get better". Again, silly me--the movie only gets worse as it progresses. And when Gandolfini dies in the end, I didn't cry. I didn't care--about any of the characters. In fact, I was greatly relieved since I knew the film had to end soon. And, thank God, it did.

Talk about a huge disappointment. I was shocked at how bad this film is. SHOCKED!!! What a waste of talent--Sarandon, Stritch, Sedaris, Walken, Parker--some of my favorite actors. I would love to see a great musical comedy with all of these actors in it. But sadly "Romance & Cigarettes" isn't it. Instead it's my choice--so far--for this year's worst film. In fact, it's probably the worst film I've seen since the '90s. It's that horrible. Trust me.