Alex & Emma (2003)

The Age of Commercialism

Load of rubbish!!

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Wilson plays Alex, a best selling author with writers block while trying to start his next novel. He owes money to The Cuban Mafia and has been given 30 days to pay or a very short lifetime to regret it. This is a task not made easier given the fact that the Cuban heavy's have cooked his laptop. As a result, he hires law stenographer Emma, (Hudson), so he can dictate the novel to her as a means to an end to get a manuscript.I found the first 15 minutes of Alex & Emma, very funny indeed, especially when Wilson was trying to hide from the Cubans by trying to prop the door closed with a chair that was far too small and then being dangled mercilessly above the street by his feet. It remains hilariously funny when we first meet Hudson's character and the ruse in which he had lured her to his apartment.I was settling down to watch what I thought was going to be a homage like throwback to the 1930's screwball comedies that I love so much, especially given the 1920's style opening titles.But then it changed kilter completely to standard rom-com fayre. It was quite bland in fact. And the constant flitting between the real and the fictional book story became irksome very quickly. It quickly became a film within a film and left me slightly confused as to which characters I was meant to be giving attention and/or sympathies. However, seeing Sophie Marceau and Kate Hudson in many scenes is more than adequate compensation for a red blooded man.Marceau can hardly be recognised as the femme fatale from the Bond film The World Is Not Enough, as in this movie, she sports a Louise Brookes/Clara Bow style haircut. Marceau plays it for laughs but sadly gets very few of them, but the Marceau/Wilson sex scene, (all tastefully delivered in silhouette) is very amusing, especially given the next shot where they are both head to foot in baby oil to indicate energetic perspiration.I did like the character of Emma, an independent sassy career girl as we've seen Hudson play before in flicks like How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days. Since Alicia Silverstone disappeared of the map, Hudson is the only actress I can watch that sets the old pulse racing and any film she appears in always goes to the top of my to watch list.Now comes the most difficult part of my review, describing the ending. OH MY GOD! the ending actually made me want to vomit into the nearest receptacle as it descended into the most diabetes inducing sweet twee garbage I've ever seen in a rom-com, and I love rom-com's.Gripe aside, Alex & Emma wasn't that bad but too many changes of direction. Screwball/Rom-Com, Contemporary/Period, Funny/Not Funny. It was all too much for my poor brain to cope with in 96 short minutes.A nice cameo from director Reiner complements this enjoyable but very disjointed movie.Enjoy!

Hi, None of the «professional» film critics, as far as I've read or known, has bothered to mention that «Alex & Emma», quite before being a kind of remake of «Paris when it sizzles» (1964) -- starring William Holden & Audrey Hepburn --, it is first of all an «adaptation» -- not to say a remake -- of a great film French movie, «La Fête à Henriette» (1952), by Julien Duvivier, starring Dany Robin & Michel Auclair (not «Eauclaire, as many mistakingly called him !).PS: Perhaps a trivial remark, when who has noticed how many stars' billing rank or order may change within a few years -- in the «stock-exchange» up and downs of crowds favourites of the cinema ? This is a sort of «extreme» example -- time-wise -- since 10 years went by between «Sabrina» (1954) -- in which Miss Hepburn was billed BEFORE Mr. Holden, and «Paris when it sizzles» when this billing order WAS REVERSED !What a shame that Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart didn't ever appear together in a movie ! This was due to the fact that both great stars wanted to have first billing in William Wyler's «The Desperate Hours» (1955)... and neither would give in ! Who said that «Vanity or vanities, all's but vanity» ?

Another romantic comedy from K. Hudson that you actually not care about; after all her last movie (How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days) sucks badly. But this movie is actually not that bad and is actually have more senses and have pretty good story line.The movie went great until almost at the end of the movie when it adapted most of the typical romantic movie storyline (i.e. when couple fight and makeup later).Anyway the movie might make it for the romantic movie lover, for then I think it would be boring for everyone else since the movie is quite slow.Recommendation: Worth One Watch (so rent it) Rating: 5.5/10 (Grade: C)

This film may be "loosely" based on A True Love Story. That is what other people have said about it. It is "EXACTLY" based on "Paris When It Sizzles". This was a film with William Holden and Audrey Hepburn, using exactly the same premise and conflict. It follows the premise of the story so closely it could almost be scene for scene. I'll always take the former, Holden and Hepburn as the two to watch, but, Kate and Like were certainly acceptable in their performances. They made the film entertaining. It is light hearted and appealing, just as originally intended. It follows that old Hollywood guideline, when every film had to have a happy ending. No deep message here, just fun.