Director/co-writer P.J. Hogan loves a merry melange of raucous comedy and group sing along (the music motifs in his films have gone from ABBA to Burt Bacharach to Barry Manilow here--with Manilow present and accounted for!). Kathy Bates looks a little misplaced starring as a dumped-on housewife in Chicago whose idol, a ladies-man singer (Jonathan Pryce, channeling Peter Allen), has been murdered near her apartment by a serial killer; she travels to London for the funeral, befriending the star's secret gay lover and deciding they must go back to the States and bring the killer to justice. Even when she's playing it light and airy, there's a tension in Bates' work which makes her a little scary; she's like a hanging judge, with even her beatific smile capable of going either way. Still, Kathy tries hard to make good on this shrill, cartoony material, which is just too eccentric for its own good. Rupert Everett plays her new friend, Dan Aykroyd (looking sheepish) is Bates' ex-husband, and Meredith Eaton plays Bates' daughter-in-law, a little person with a take-no-prisoners approach to life. All have some good moments in this highly irregular, unsubstantial, woebegone sentimental comedy which ends in a torrent of good will on the Sally Jesse Raphael Show. Oprah must have been booked that week. ** from ****
Review of Unconditional Love
Unconditional Love
(2002)
Kathy Bates struggles valiantly to make something out of nothing...
17 March 2008