So I decided this night to watch Grace Of My Heart, a movie I saw once about a dozen years ago and thought it was terrible then; I gave my DVD away to my best friend as a gift, to do as he wanted with it, and he thought it was so awful it was sort of funny, it was almost good because it was so bad.
So, since tastes change and I didn't remember how this movie was from that long ago, I gave it a shot again. I mean I like Illeana Douglas, she's a good actress. But this mess... it starts out with some promise, and John Turturro as this Phil Spector-like producer/talent scout, is so amusing as this Spector-type, the movie felt like it was working early on, that it would. Unfortunately it tries too hard to cover too much of music history instead of focusing on the Brill Building writers and songs, all fictionalized here, and with some BAD original music.
And that includes Burt Bacharach and pompous Elvis Costello's contribution to the movie, God Give Me Strength. Illeana seems to sings it well - she's miming to the voice of a performer named Kristen Vigard.
The movie's first problem was the casting of Eric Stoltz as her "Goffin" (she is of course clearly modeled on Carole King at times, which is a GREAT insult to Carole King, one of the greatest songwriters of all time). He is annoying from the start, and their relationship takes how contrived this movie is to a new level.
But that's just the beginning. After they get married, have a kid, and she catches him cheating on him and leaves him, she winds up with (dear God) a Brian Wilson type character played by none other than that master thespian, MATT DILLON. Things just DIE right there.
(Oh, beforehand, along with cliches about girl groups and black singers, and black girl groups, is also one about Leslie Gore, which touches on oh-so-sensitively that she's got feelings too and should not be made fun of - wow, what a revelation. Of course, like ALL performers, her name is not mentioned; the sole exception to this weird fictional movie is when Turturro's character, Joel, tells Illeana's character, Denise (real name Edna), about this producer he thinks she should work with; she asks, Phil Spector? So, to dispel any thoughts that Joel is somehow playing a Spector type character (sans bossing anyone around), and now that I think of it, to maybe avoid his wrath back then, Joel says something like "Nah, Spector's HISTORY!" She then mentions Shadow Morton - these are the two rock and roll names mentioned in the movie that I recall). (Note: they didn't even need to let us know that he's not supposed to be the Phil Spector of the universe this movie inhabits, because instead of Joel taking credit for everything as Spector did with his productions, he says he would be nothing without Denise. Spector would never have said that about Ronnie or the tons of other singers, groups, musicians and songwriters that worked with him. Spector saying that to any of his artists would be like Chuck Berry telling Alan Freed he'd play free for him - but that's another movie, and I digress).
After that it's about her and (ahem) "Jay Phillips" of this unnamed surf group, vocal surf group, which is clearly Brian Wilson, and the Beach Boys, and Brian's fictional version is played by Matt Dillon. This is one of the worst casting decisions I've ever seen. Matt Dillon. I have to say, after the unintentional insults hurled at Brian Wilson with this shameless parody, going into his "eccentricities," the movie lost all hope. There's even a totally ridiculous, pot-smoking doctor/shrink to come in (that Dr. Landy?) called Jonesy, Dr. Jones, played by David Clennon. Anybody see The Couch Trip? DON'T. Anyway his performance is so cliche-ridden it's sickening. And it just gets worse and worse. I was GLAD that Jay decided to drown himself in the river. I actually said "Jump! Jump in!" out loud watching him. I applauded Matt Dillon's character's death! This is followed by Denise's mourning, and the return of the BEST thing about this fiasco of a movie, the only good thing along with Illeana, and that's of course John Turturro, as Joel. So after he's there a while he convinces her to put out an album, as "Jay" would have wanted. So she, instead of having the one flop with God Give Me Strength previously, she miraculously makes an LP clearly meant to ape Carole King's fantastic Tapestry. Down to the cover, everything. And of course it sells millions.
This movie was so bad, it's unbelievable - that it's popular at ALL. Turturro was a hoot, and Illeana can act, but this story is a disaster as well as the casting. A completely ridiculous movie, just terrible. (and I blame a lot of that on Matt Dillon as a Brian Wilson-like character, but the whole story's a mess. They tried to cover so much ground they buried this movie. I'm almost surprised they didn't try and fit Woodstock, or maybe the Monterey Pop Festival in this disaster. All music aficionados should AVOID this movie - unless they want to see something truly unbelievably bad).
So, since tastes change and I didn't remember how this movie was from that long ago, I gave it a shot again. I mean I like Illeana Douglas, she's a good actress. But this mess... it starts out with some promise, and John Turturro as this Phil Spector-like producer/talent scout, is so amusing as this Spector-type, the movie felt like it was working early on, that it would. Unfortunately it tries too hard to cover too much of music history instead of focusing on the Brill Building writers and songs, all fictionalized here, and with some BAD original music.
And that includes Burt Bacharach and pompous Elvis Costello's contribution to the movie, God Give Me Strength. Illeana seems to sings it well - she's miming to the voice of a performer named Kristen Vigard.
The movie's first problem was the casting of Eric Stoltz as her "Goffin" (she is of course clearly modeled on Carole King at times, which is a GREAT insult to Carole King, one of the greatest songwriters of all time). He is annoying from the start, and their relationship takes how contrived this movie is to a new level.
But that's just the beginning. After they get married, have a kid, and she catches him cheating on him and leaves him, she winds up with (dear God) a Brian Wilson type character played by none other than that master thespian, MATT DILLON. Things just DIE right there.
(Oh, beforehand, along with cliches about girl groups and black singers, and black girl groups, is also one about Leslie Gore, which touches on oh-so-sensitively that she's got feelings too and should not be made fun of - wow, what a revelation. Of course, like ALL performers, her name is not mentioned; the sole exception to this weird fictional movie is when Turturro's character, Joel, tells Illeana's character, Denise (real name Edna), about this producer he thinks she should work with; she asks, Phil Spector? So, to dispel any thoughts that Joel is somehow playing a Spector type character (sans bossing anyone around), and now that I think of it, to maybe avoid his wrath back then, Joel says something like "Nah, Spector's HISTORY!" She then mentions Shadow Morton - these are the two rock and roll names mentioned in the movie that I recall). (Note: they didn't even need to let us know that he's not supposed to be the Phil Spector of the universe this movie inhabits, because instead of Joel taking credit for everything as Spector did with his productions, he says he would be nothing without Denise. Spector would never have said that about Ronnie or the tons of other singers, groups, musicians and songwriters that worked with him. Spector saying that to any of his artists would be like Chuck Berry telling Alan Freed he'd play free for him - but that's another movie, and I digress).
After that it's about her and (ahem) "Jay Phillips" of this unnamed surf group, vocal surf group, which is clearly Brian Wilson, and the Beach Boys, and Brian's fictional version is played by Matt Dillon. This is one of the worst casting decisions I've ever seen. Matt Dillon. I have to say, after the unintentional insults hurled at Brian Wilson with this shameless parody, going into his "eccentricities," the movie lost all hope. There's even a totally ridiculous, pot-smoking doctor/shrink to come in (that Dr. Landy?) called Jonesy, Dr. Jones, played by David Clennon. Anybody see The Couch Trip? DON'T. Anyway his performance is so cliche-ridden it's sickening. And it just gets worse and worse. I was GLAD that Jay decided to drown himself in the river. I actually said "Jump! Jump in!" out loud watching him. I applauded Matt Dillon's character's death! This is followed by Denise's mourning, and the return of the BEST thing about this fiasco of a movie, the only good thing along with Illeana, and that's of course John Turturro, as Joel. So after he's there a while he convinces her to put out an album, as "Jay" would have wanted. So she, instead of having the one flop with God Give Me Strength previously, she miraculously makes an LP clearly meant to ape Carole King's fantastic Tapestry. Down to the cover, everything. And of course it sells millions.
This movie was so bad, it's unbelievable - that it's popular at ALL. Turturro was a hoot, and Illeana can act, but this story is a disaster as well as the casting. A completely ridiculous movie, just terrible. (and I blame a lot of that on Matt Dillon as a Brian Wilson-like character, but the whole story's a mess. They tried to cover so much ground they buried this movie. I'm almost surprised they didn't try and fit Woodstock, or maybe the Monterey Pop Festival in this disaster. All music aficionados should AVOID this movie - unless they want to see something truly unbelievably bad).