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Music and Lyrics is a fluff romantic comedy made nice by Hugh Grant’s usual appeal and a bunch of nice songs that were written especially for the movie.

Formulaic is the idea here, but even with formulaic movies there are bad ones, mediocre ones, enjoyable ones, and great ones. This is not a great one, but it’s enjoyable, with no wrong moves, ridiculous hysteria or major plot problems.

Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) is a lyricist and the other half of a musical duo that had a few pop hits in the eighties. Obviously based on the story of Wham and George Michael, his ex-childhood friend and partner dumped him when the opportunity came to make it big as a solo artist.

Fifteen years later he’s given the opportunity to write a song for one of the hottest and stupidest female performers (Haley Bennett) on the planet, a Britney-like singer who’s heavily into what can only be described as sleazy Buddhism and who apparently thinks that the Dalai Lama is actually a llama. Only he needs a lyricist, since he only knows how to write the tunes.

Guess what undiscovered talent his new, cute, but ditsy hired plant-waterer (Drew Barrymore) turns out to possess? (A clue: it’s not a propensity for taking care of plants.)

What saves the movie from mediocrity is the appealing performance of Hugh, who is his usual charming self, and a host of pretty good songs written especially for the movie. You will probably find yourself humming or singing the theme song after the movie is done.

Amazingly enough, Hugh, Drew, and Haley do all of their own singing for the film, and they’re all pretty good.

Tristan & Isolde is a thrilling and romantic film about an old myth.

I read on its IMDB entry about how the story bears resemblance to Romeo and Juliet, but it’s much closer to the love triangle of King Arthur, Lancelot, and Guenevere. Lo, and behold, the Wikipedia entry on the original story backs me up.

Essentially: Tristan (James Franco) is from Cornwall and loyal to King Marke (Rufus Sewell), one of many kings of a divided post-Roman Britain. Ireland is harrying Britain which can’t fight back because its kings can’t unite against their common foe.

Tristan kills Ireland’s champion warrior but is in turn poisoned by the warrior’s blade, and falls into a death-like state. He is sent out on a funeral boat and ends up falling into the hands of the proto-feminist Isolde (Sophia Myles), who happens to be the daughter of the Irish king and happens to be the unwilling betrothed of the now-dead champion.

Before you can say “uh huh, right”, Isolde nurses Tristan back to life and sends him back to Britain, but not before they have fallen madly in love. Through various new plots, Isolde ends up married to Marke in an attempt to unite both Britain and Ireland, or the kingdoms of Britain, or something of that sort, and there follows a love triangle which puts the fate of both nations at risk.

Unlike most movies of this sort, there’s not a lot of yelling and cutout characters. It’s well-crafted and acted, and very carefully not overdone, except for a bit of superfluous and repetitious poetry. It has action for the lovers of sword fights, and passion and romance for the lovers of hopeless tragedy. All in all, it’s a lovely film, without any long stretches of downtime, and without too many rushed scenes (except for the beginning, perhaps).

IMDB also claims that the movie is based on Wagner’s famous opera, Tristan und Isolde, which is quite changed from the original legend, but the movie is sufficiently changed from the opera that only the basic characters and setting remain.

Children of Men is a violent but excellent movie about a near dystopian future where no children have been born for 18 years. No explanation is given for this premise, nor is one really needed.

As you might expect, the world is pretty down about this, fearing for the end of mankind after the current humans die in a way that doesn’t seem to bother our current civilization (which is why science-fiction is the best of all metaphorical fiction genres, holding up a mirror to ourselves by changing something that we often take for granted).

The movie also presents the entire world as essentially reverted to barbarism, with the lone exception of Great Britain. But GB doesn’t get off easy. They have their hands full beating up, killing, or throwing out the waves of illegal immigrants trying to get in, as well as handling the roaming gangs of thugs in the countryside who are out for a bit of the old ultra-violence.

Theo (Clive Owen) plays a man going about his business who suddenly gets “recruited” by an old girlfriend (Julianne Moore), a “terrorist” leader: she needs him to help smuggle a young woman out of the country. A young woman who is mysteriously, and miraculously, pregnant.

Along the way we meet violence, a bit of friendship, more violence, betrayal, more violence, and more violence.

Theo is an anti-hero. He does what he has to do while the forces around him are slowly circling in, but he’s fragile, weak, and scared. Lots of people beat up, slice, or shoot people in the film, but he’s not one of them. As a result, you feel the fear along with him.

While I disagree with the need to show so much explicit gore (not excessively much, but too much anyway), the movie is beautifully shot with many very long single shots, which gives an air of reality to the narrative.

As far as the pregnancy goes, this is just as unexplained as the premise itself. Nor is any explanation given as to what exactly will happen with a single baby born into this mess of a world. Which is all to the good.

Some people said that the best sci-fi movie of the last decade was Gattaca, but I disagree; Gattaca was an good premise but a rather poor movie shot with little flair and too tightly wrapped up. This is far better; better movie-making, and better story.

Enchanted is a wonderful Disney movie that manages to both capture the spirit of family entertainment while simultaneously mocking it at the same time.

The movie begins with a fifteen minute animated sequence about a girl (Amy Adams) in the forest with her woodland animal friends pining for her true love’s kiss just as if the last fifty years of feminism and modern sensibilities never occurred.

The handsome prince (James Marsden), out for his daily jaunt at beating up ogres, swoops in to rescue the girl.

“Who are you?” he asks.

“I’m Gizelle!”

“Gizelle! We will be married in the morning!”

And so they ride off into the sunset.

Hopefully no one will have bolted out of the theater by this point, because this is where it gets truly wonderful. The prince’s stepmother, fearing the loss of her kingdom should her step-son marry, pushes Gizelle into a magical well where she wakes up as a live action person in New York City.

About what you would expect occurs, but it’s done so well. It’s not overdone slapstick, it’s not racy, it’s not all the bad things it could have been. Instead it’s sweet, lightly comedic, and captivating. There are even a few song and dance numbers that are actually good, not forgettable like so many other recent musicals have been.

And even though things work out in the usual Disney manner, enough modern sensibility is thrown in to make it not too cloying.

The movie enters some weak territory when it tries to resolve just what magic works in the real world and what doesn’t. But you can ignore that. And it carries a poor message about the magic of credit cards, which is harder to ignore, but doesn’t take up much screen time.

My daughter Tal (14) saw it with me and hid her face in her hands when the movie started out, thinking that it might be all animated and old-fashioned, but in the end she was singing the songs out of the theater.

This is not a deep, thoughtful life-changing movie, but it’s great entertainment and a welcome member of the Disney collection.