Juliet, Naked
First, no, I'm not suddenly starting to review porn: the film's title is a very pointed reference to Let It Be, Naked by the Beatles and is a crucial part of the plot, so no jokes from you smartasses in the corner, thank you. Second, I made the mistake of rereading my original review so I, inevitably, had to change a few things that I didn't like so this is a somewhat longer and altered version of the review you will find on Channel 24. I'll try not make a habit of this but, as any writer knows, looking back at your own work is never a smart move as all you see is the mistakes you made and the things you wish you did differently.
What it’s about
Annie Platt and Duncan Thomson are a couple with a fairly comfortable, if unexciting relationship, living in a small coastal town in England but if there is one thing that constantly places a strain on their relationship, it’s Duncan’s obsession with the life and music of Tucker Crowe, an American indie-rocker who, two decades ago and at the peak of his fame, suddenly disappeared from the world stage. When a raw and uncut (or “naked”) version of Crowe’s masterpiece, Juliet, is sent to Duncan and Annie opens it first, a series of events unfold that brings the legendary rocker into the lives of this ordinary couple in some very unexpected ways. Based on the novel by Nick Hornby.
What we thought
There has been a great problem with Nick Hornby’s novels since the release of High Fidelity in 1995 and it’s one that has extended to the films based on his work too: High Fidelity, his first novel and second book (the autobiographical Fever Pitch came first), was so great that however enjoyable all of his subsequent novels turned out to be – and most were very enjoyable, indeed – couldn’t help but pale in comparison. Even the pretty great About a Boy just couldn’t quite measure up.
This was certainly true of the big-screen adaptations of his novels too, but even worse. High Fidelity remains one of my all-time favourite films and for good reason: it’s an absolutely bloody fantastic insight into the modern male with endlessly quotable dialogue, unforgettable characters, career-best performances for most of its cast and a killers soundtrack. Once again, though, only About a Boy comes remotely close to capturing the magic of Stephen Frears’ modern-classic, with all other adaptations of his work faring worse than even their own source novels did against their predecessors.
It’s with no small amount of pleasure, then, that I can report that not only is Juliet, Naked the most purely enjoyable mainstream rom-com to come along in ages but it’s easily the best Hornby adaptation since About a Boy and is, believe it or not, a solid improvement over the novel. It’s been a very long time since I read the book (it came out in 2009 and I read it soon after its release) but, if I recall correctly at all, the film is fairly faithful to it but with a few crucial differences that make it far easier to embrace.
Like the novel, the plot of the film is clearly patently ridiculous with plot contrivance building on plot contrivance, having little of the naturalistic realness of High Fidelity and About a Boy. It’s the sort of plot that gives ammunition to those cynical souls who hate the entire romantic comedy genre. It’s also really quite beside the point. Director Jesse Peretz (former bassist of the band the Lemonheads and established director of a bunch of OK films but some really fantastic television) and screenwriters, Evgenia Peretz (Jesse’s sister and frequent collaborator), Jim Taylor and Tamara Jenkins, have crafted a film of such warmth, wit and character that it easily overcomes almost all of the shortcomings in its plot and just as easily earns its undeniable sentimental streak.
In many ways, in fact, Juliet, Naked feels like the best film that Richard Curtis never made. In films such as Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and, most especially, the gorgeous and criminally overlooked About Time, Curtis has been able to get away with sometimes ridiculous plotlines and some pretty unabashed sentimentality by filling his films with wonderful characters (portrayed, almost always, by fantastic actors), tons of heart, razor-sharp dialogue and plenty of well-placed classic tunes – and all of this applies just as easily to Juliet, Naked.
That Peretz (Jesse rather than Evgenia, in this case) was a working musician in a fairly successful band and has directed a good dozen music videos for some pretty names in music, might be just as crucial to the film’s success as his previous directorial work in film and television. It’s not just that the film features a good number of really good songs, both original and covers (this is the second film this year to make beautiful use of the Kinks’ stone-cold classic, Waterloo Sunset) but that for a film that’s so much about both being a musician and being a music fan and how those two things can often offer very, very different perspectives on any piece of music, Peretz brings a real authenticity to the proceedings that only further obscures the contrivances of the plot.
The big difference between the film and the novel, though - and, yes, bigger even than the fact that one medium has the distinct advantage of being able to actually produce music - is that both the script and the three lead actors (with some really fun support from the likes of Lily Brazier, Azhy Robertson – another really good child-actor – and a scene-stealing Phil Davis) work together in a way that they very easily turn characters who were actually fairly unlikable on the page into people that you really can’t help but root for. .
Regardless of how believable the story around them is, our three main characters are written with genuine affection but also with enough character flaws and weaknesses that they always feel like real people, even at their most archetypal. Yes, Chris O'Dowd's character is a riff on Rob from High Fidelity and there's nothing exactly original about a former rock star trying to pick up the wreckage of his wild past by trying to make good with his young son (another Beatles connection: see John Lennon and his relationship with his second son, Sean) but there is far too much attention to detail, too much colour to these characters for them to ever feel even remotely cliche.
This has a lot to do with how they're written but it has as much to do with the actors who bring them to life. While Tucker Crowe fits the reliably excellent Ethan Hawke like a glove, O'Dowd brings his very specific brand of hangdog, everyman comedy to a character that could so easily have been just a pathetic joke but ends up being so much more interesting and sympathetic than that. As for Rose Byrne, she may be too magnetic a screen presence to entirely convince as, basically, a fairly ordinary small-town girl but she is a brilliant comic actress, firing on all cylinders here, who is smart enough to fill her character with enough of a melancholy edge to fully convince that Annie is a woman adrift in her own life.
It's these sorts of details that ensure that despite Juliet Naked's ludicrous plot and lack of originality, it's a true gem of a film that is as likely to tug on your heartstrings as it is to tickle your funny bone and charm your socks off. And all this from a humble romantic comedy, at that.
Annie Platt and Duncan Thomson are a couple with a fairly comfortable, if unexciting relationship, living in a small coastal town in England but if there is one thing that constantly places a strain on their relationship, it’s Duncan’s obsession with the life and music of Tucker Crowe, an American indie-rocker who, two decades ago and at the peak of his fame, suddenly disappeared from the world stage. When a raw and uncut (or “naked”) version of Crowe’s masterpiece, Juliet, is sent to Duncan and Annie opens it first, a series of events unfold that brings the legendary rocker into the lives of this ordinary couple in some very unexpected ways. Based on the novel by Nick Hornby.
What we thought
There has been a great problem with Nick Hornby’s novels since the release of High Fidelity in 1995 and it’s one that has extended to the films based on his work too: High Fidelity, his first novel and second book (the autobiographical Fever Pitch came first), was so great that however enjoyable all of his subsequent novels turned out to be – and most were very enjoyable, indeed – couldn’t help but pale in comparison. Even the pretty great About a Boy just couldn’t quite measure up.
This was certainly true of the big-screen adaptations of his novels too, but even worse. High Fidelity remains one of my all-time favourite films and for good reason: it’s an absolutely bloody fantastic insight into the modern male with endlessly quotable dialogue, unforgettable characters, career-best performances for most of its cast and a killers soundtrack. Once again, though, only About a Boy comes remotely close to capturing the magic of Stephen Frears’ modern-classic, with all other adaptations of his work faring worse than even their own source novels did against their predecessors.
It’s with no small amount of pleasure, then, that I can report that not only is Juliet, Naked the most purely enjoyable mainstream rom-com to come along in ages but it’s easily the best Hornby adaptation since About a Boy and is, believe it or not, a solid improvement over the novel. It’s been a very long time since I read the book (it came out in 2009 and I read it soon after its release) but, if I recall correctly at all, the film is fairly faithful to it but with a few crucial differences that make it far easier to embrace.
Like the novel, the plot of the film is clearly patently ridiculous with plot contrivance building on plot contrivance, having little of the naturalistic realness of High Fidelity and About a Boy. It’s the sort of plot that gives ammunition to those cynical souls who hate the entire romantic comedy genre. It’s also really quite beside the point. Director Jesse Peretz (former bassist of the band the Lemonheads and established director of a bunch of OK films but some really fantastic television) and screenwriters, Evgenia Peretz (Jesse’s sister and frequent collaborator), Jim Taylor and Tamara Jenkins, have crafted a film of such warmth, wit and character that it easily overcomes almost all of the shortcomings in its plot and just as easily earns its undeniable sentimental streak.
In many ways, in fact, Juliet, Naked feels like the best film that Richard Curtis never made. In films such as Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and, most especially, the gorgeous and criminally overlooked About Time, Curtis has been able to get away with sometimes ridiculous plotlines and some pretty unabashed sentimentality by filling his films with wonderful characters (portrayed, almost always, by fantastic actors), tons of heart, razor-sharp dialogue and plenty of well-placed classic tunes – and all of this applies just as easily to Juliet, Naked.
That Peretz (Jesse rather than Evgenia, in this case) was a working musician in a fairly successful band and has directed a good dozen music videos for some pretty names in music, might be just as crucial to the film’s success as his previous directorial work in film and television. It’s not just that the film features a good number of really good songs, both original and covers (this is the second film this year to make beautiful use of the Kinks’ stone-cold classic, Waterloo Sunset) but that for a film that’s so much about both being a musician and being a music fan and how those two things can often offer very, very different perspectives on any piece of music, Peretz brings a real authenticity to the proceedings that only further obscures the contrivances of the plot.
The big difference between the film and the novel, though - and, yes, bigger even than the fact that one medium has the distinct advantage of being able to actually produce music - is that both the script and the three lead actors (with some really fun support from the likes of Lily Brazier, Azhy Robertson – another really good child-actor – and a scene-stealing Phil Davis) work together in a way that they very easily turn characters who were actually fairly unlikable on the page into people that you really can’t help but root for. .
Regardless of how believable the story around them is, our three main characters are written with genuine affection but also with enough character flaws and weaknesses that they always feel like real people, even at their most archetypal. Yes, Chris O'Dowd's character is a riff on Rob from High Fidelity and there's nothing exactly original about a former rock star trying to pick up the wreckage of his wild past by trying to make good with his young son (another Beatles connection: see John Lennon and his relationship with his second son, Sean) but there is far too much attention to detail, too much colour to these characters for them to ever feel even remotely cliche.
This has a lot to do with how they're written but it has as much to do with the actors who bring them to life. While Tucker Crowe fits the reliably excellent Ethan Hawke like a glove, O'Dowd brings his very specific brand of hangdog, everyman comedy to a character that could so easily have been just a pathetic joke but ends up being so much more interesting and sympathetic than that. As for Rose Byrne, she may be too magnetic a screen presence to entirely convince as, basically, a fairly ordinary small-town girl but she is a brilliant comic actress, firing on all cylinders here, who is smart enough to fill her character with enough of a melancholy edge to fully convince that Annie is a woman adrift in her own life.
It's these sorts of details that ensure that despite Juliet Naked's ludicrous plot and lack of originality, it's a true gem of a film that is as likely to tug on your heartstrings as it is to tickle your funny bone and charm your socks off. And all this from a humble romantic comedy, at that.
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