I greatly enjoyed Unconditional Love (2002) while also being able to see why the film wasn't a commercial success. The problem is that rather than straddling genres, it attempts to be multiple genres.
First, Kathy Bates is initially starring in a typically American Lifestyle movie of a middle-aged woman "finding herself" after her husband has a mid-life crisis.
Then we move to the UK, where we're in a kind of Richard Curtis black comedy (at one point they even sing one of the songs from Four Weddings and a Funeral). Various famous British actors pop up in the same kinds of comedic cameos that one would expect in such films. This even includes Julie Andrews, twice calming down a crisis with "Getting To Know You" (why not "My Favourite Things"?!)
Finally we return to the US, where we're in a sort of B-grade mystery thriller, sort of Hallmark Channel-does-Silence-of-the-Lambs. This still gets interspersed with comedic and surreal singing and dancing sequences, and then we're back to screaming/running/chasing with Rupert Everett in a glittery jacket being the most histrionic of the lot.
Meredith Eaton, an actress of physically short stature, has an interesting role. She plays Kathy Bates' daughter, a woman with dwarfism, but her character's condition is alternately used to make a meaningful point about prejudice and diversity, and then for comedic effect. Does it work? I don't know. Sometimes it felt rather awkward.
The biggest clash is really the American schmaltz versus the British black humour. I was reminded of Finding Your Feet (2017), a British comedy drama that also features a central character who is a middle aged woman suddenly dumped by her husband who has to find herself. That film has far more tragedy and poignancy than Unconditional Love, and is much more bittersweet than comedic, but it works much better.
Perhaps being sharper simply enables a movie to be more sincere. Rupert Everett sniping about gay persecution is far more sympathetic and poignant than Kathy Bates schmaltzing about "unconditional love" and human relations.
Unconditional Love ends with a huge singing performance that includes Barry Manilow. That possibly tells you more about this movie than anything else could.
First, Kathy Bates is initially starring in a typically American Lifestyle movie of a middle-aged woman "finding herself" after her husband has a mid-life crisis.
Then we move to the UK, where we're in a kind of Richard Curtis black comedy (at one point they even sing one of the songs from Four Weddings and a Funeral). Various famous British actors pop up in the same kinds of comedic cameos that one would expect in such films. This even includes Julie Andrews, twice calming down a crisis with "Getting To Know You" (why not "My Favourite Things"?!)
Finally we return to the US, where we're in a sort of B-grade mystery thriller, sort of Hallmark Channel-does-Silence-of-the-Lambs. This still gets interspersed with comedic and surreal singing and dancing sequences, and then we're back to screaming/running/chasing with Rupert Everett in a glittery jacket being the most histrionic of the lot.
Meredith Eaton, an actress of physically short stature, has an interesting role. She plays Kathy Bates' daughter, a woman with dwarfism, but her character's condition is alternately used to make a meaningful point about prejudice and diversity, and then for comedic effect. Does it work? I don't know. Sometimes it felt rather awkward.
The biggest clash is really the American schmaltz versus the British black humour. I was reminded of Finding Your Feet (2017), a British comedy drama that also features a central character who is a middle aged woman suddenly dumped by her husband who has to find herself. That film has far more tragedy and poignancy than Unconditional Love, and is much more bittersweet than comedic, but it works much better.
Perhaps being sharper simply enables a movie to be more sincere. Rupert Everett sniping about gay persecution is far more sympathetic and poignant than Kathy Bates schmaltzing about "unconditional love" and human relations.
Unconditional Love ends with a huge singing performance that includes Barry Manilow. That possibly tells you more about this movie than anything else could.