Down with Love

2003 | USA | PG-13 | cinesia : 11

official site :

DIRECTOR : Peyton Reed

CAST : Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, Tony Randall, Sarah Paulson, David Hyde Pierce, Rachel Dratch ...

WRITER : Eve Ahlert, Dennis Drake

PRODUCER : Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks

COMPOSER : Marc Shaiman

STUDIO : Epsilon Motion Pictures

DISTRIBUTOR : Rialto Film AG

RUNTIME : 1 hour 41 minutes

LANGUAGE : English

GENRE : Comedy / Romance

USA

May 16, 2003

Switzerland

September 10, 2003

The ultimate catch has met his match.

Barbara Novak (Renee Zellweger) hits New York City with her new book DOWN WITH LOVE, a pre-feminist manifesto on saying "no" to love and "yes" to career, empowerment - and sex. As Barbara's revolutionary tome rockets to the top of best-seller charts, she becomes the target of ace journalist Catcher "Catch" Block (Ewan McGregor), ladies' man / man's man/ man about town, who is determined to take her down.
Catch's best friend and boss, the neurotic and lovesick Peter McMannus (David Hyde Pierce), tries to rein in his star writer, while haplessly pursuing the object of his affections, Vikki Hiller (Sarah Paulson), Barbara's brilliant and feisty editor. Vikki plays tough in a man's world, which includes her old-style chauvinist boss, Theodore Banner (Tony Randall).

For the shooting of Down With Love, the crew didn’t have to go out of the Universal Studios. The interior scenes were shot on four sets of the Hollywood Center Studios and the exterior ones in the enclosure of the studios. To keep the more as possible the style of the sixties, the director (Peyton Reed) used exactly everything that we can see in those years and particularly by taking example on the famous dramatical comedies of Doris Day and Rock Hudson – Barabar Novak’s character, for example, is completely inspired by Doris Day. So everything has been reproduced: the costumes, the hairstyles, the music, the split screens and the sets: large and spacious with wonderful drawings in the background. “We have painted backdrops, not translights, so we’re not hiding the fact that our setting is not real,” says director of photography Jeff Cronenweth. As the film is also a tribute to these old comedies, the production invited Tony Randall – who made three films with Doris Day and Rock Hudson - to play one of the characters in the movie. “Beautiful clothes and lovely interiors. Looking around on the set of Down With Love, I feel I’ve never left.” says Tony Randall.

Fred's review

posted on
August 13, 2005

An poor return to the 60s

A pretty poor movie, but it remains funny and entertaining, thanks to the actors and to this nice reconstitution of the 60s. At first sight, the movie could seem attractive and original; but underneath is hiding what is finally a typical American comedy among hundreds of others. The script isn't very innovative and the issues and the broached subjects don't distinguish from the other comedies cast in the same mould. Of course one isn't getting bored, especially with some coups de théâtre and sudden revivals and some other pleasant scenes.
All in all, this movie is maybe not exactly equal to what one expects, but on the other hand cannot be considered as a complete deception.

DIRECTION

ACTING

REVISIBILITY FACTOR

STORY

MUSIC

follow Fred's reviews

Pascal's review

posted on
October 22, 2005

Little comedy, for a barely entertaining cinema evening

“Down with love” is a pleasant comedy, but without a lot of originality and I would like to add, devoid of really funny scenes. It would be more opportune to say that this movie is just entertaining than to qualify it a real comedy. Meanwhile, the acting is great, as Renée Zellweger, as Ewan McGregor, who cleverly manage to change character and accent, raise the level of this pale production.
The script is also well structured, filled up with amusing rebounds. Briefly, it’s not the best comedy of the year, but one which lets it watch.

DIRECTION

ACTING