Life or Something Like It
Starring Angelina Jolie, Edward Burns

Directed by Stephen Herek,
Rated PG-13

*1/2 out of 4 Stars

Released April 26, 2002

Running time: 103 minutes

*1/2

by Kevin Lang

"Life or Something Like It," directed by Stephen Herek, is a movie that believes itself to be better than it is. The actors in the movie find more humor in the jokes, and more emotion in the formulaic drama than the audience does. I'm at least glad that somebody enjoyed this movie. It's just too bad that it wasn't the ones munching on the six-dollar popcorn and three dollar drinks. Instead, it was the people being paid outrageous amounts of money to lure us into the theater by looking glamorous on posters and billboards.

I'm speaking specifically about Angelina Jolie in this case, who plays newswoman Lanie Kerigan in the film. Don't get me wrong, Angelina Jolie's tantalizingly puffy lips and caricatured face aren't bad to look at, but it seems that a little too much effort was put into making her stand out instead of the movie. Her character, whose face dons the film's poster, looked like a cross between an overly tan Marylin Monroe and an airbrushed model from a Cosmopolitan ad. Maybe she wasn't overly tan, but rather her hair was bleached to such an extreme shade of blond (a.k.a. white) that it eclipsed everything else, including this movie.

The film's plot developed in a contrived manner. Near the beginning, a homeless man known as Prophet Jack (Tony Shalhoub) told Lanie that she only had several days to live. The story unfolded in the obvious direction. Lanie began to question the life that she was living, asking herself if she was truly happy. She struggled to recognize what was most important to her, and this provided the only real, yet obvious conflict in the movie.

Suddenly, into the picture came Pete, the levelheaded cameraman played by Edward Burns, who it seemed had figured out the key to being happy. He only worked when he wanted to, which would probably be a key to almost everyone's happiness. He also had very few cares and little internal conflict, which made him highly contrast the character of Lanie. Pete apparently had previously been involved with Lanie, and we were led to believe that both of them had departed with a disliking for each other. They were reunited on the job, and Lanie came to quickly need Pete's friendship again. Pete acted as a ground for Lanie, who was moving through life too fast to realize what was most important to her. This is a common theme in romantic comedies, and it is one that has been executed much more effectively in previous films.

"Life or Something Like It" never seemed to find its own voice. It contained recycled humor that wasn't very funny, and a story that tried to be too relaxed and comical to be taken seriously. The movie and its characters were always one step ahead of the audience. Pete materialized as Lanie's cameraman, and we were expected to accept him immediately without knowing anything about him. It was only later in the movie, after it was already traveling at its own speed, that we learned that Pete was a single parent with a son whom he cared about a lot. Why not show him with his son first to help build his character and our respect for him, before we get to know him when he is with Lanie? We never got to know Lanie's friends either, which would have helped to round her character. Even her father we only saw sitting lazily in his recliner, appearing more as a constructed character, rather than an actual parent.

I wish that I had the ability to make predictions like Tony Shalhoub's Prophet Jack did in this movie. It might have saved me from the stale popcorn and watered down drink that I had. Even better, I could have saved myself the two hours it took to watch the movie, and instead I could have rented a classic romantic comedy that I would have watched while enjoying a bag of microwave popcorn and a cool glass of iced tea. I did find curiosity in discovering if Angelina Jolie's character would in fact die at the end of the film. It's just that I didn't find the road to discovery as enjoyable as I'd wished it had been.

Review written April 20, 2002, CTF.