... before he became a Vegas act.
To be honest, this movie is one of those rare films which is remembered better as nostalgia (based on seeing when in came out in 2000) than when re-viewing (pardon the pun) some 14 years later.
And if I can explain that oddness to you, I believe I can get to the nub, the heart, of DUETS. So I will try.
The first time I saw it, I loved it. I recommended it. I made a mental note that this was a sleeper, a really nice little indie. I wanted to see it again.
It took 14 years for me to get a chance to revisit the film but, on a second viewing, I was not that impressed at all. Here are my notes:
* Paul Giammatti steals this film but that is hardly news, he pretty much steals every film he has ever been in, this script simply gives him more room to move
* the part that Bruce Paltrow cast his daughter in is simply ... bizarre. There are many many ways to play a young girl who meets her wayward father late in life but somehow I don't think this is one of them. Gwen has never looked better and her looks actually distract from the role, aided and abetted by the director having her slink here and there whenever the chance presents itself. This is wrong on many levels.
* the cameos are all interesting and the stories are all interesting but other than the aforesaid performance by Giamatti, they simply fall apart the longer the viewer has endure them.
* on second viewing, I realized that what I liked so much about the film originally was the whole Karioke theme, that this theme has astonishingly been underplayed in movies (boy is that rare!) and it shouldn't be, because it has legs. The first scene in the script with Huey Lewis is the strongest with the most impact, and understand THAT IS NOT A GOOD THING because the story and the film go downhill from there.
