Romance & Cigarettes

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Richard W The best performers in one of the worst musicals ever made. This is one of those rare instances where a movie starts off so bad you can't stop watching it. And then it starts to grow on you like a fungus taking its sweet-ass time turning into tasty mushroom. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 11/25/24 Full Review helder f This movie has great scenes and acting, but that isn’t enough. At most, the movie plays like a dream, a person’s daydreaming and recollections as the radio plays their favorite songs. It falls mostly flat, where really no character knows where they’re headed and no story stands out. I think the characters may stay with the viewer, but their story is lost. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 11/04/24 Full Review nate m Ya want weird? Ya got weird. Ya want something different? Ya want some creativity? Ya got it! I'm amazed that a movie as offbeat and art-house and indie as this could get A-list stars and get made. I felt it got boring at times, but I kept watching because of the cleverness, intelligence, parody, and wit. I think this will appeal a limited audience, but those who 'get it' will enjoy it. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Flipped this on late at night and was not expecting a musical so I was caught off guard and kinda like a deer in headlights for most of this. ‘Eccentric' is how I'd best sum it up in one word, it surprised me.... good or bad, and I'll never know what I'd have thought of it if I knew it was a musical going into it. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Audience Member Quite amusing, in a certain way. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member I'm confident that you won't stumble upon an independent movie weirder than John Turturro's "Romance & Cigarettes" (2007) anytime soon - imagine the love child of a high school musical and a kitchen-sink drama, with genetic flashes of 1950s teen movie quirks and marital crisis soap opera. Yes, the characters sing, yes, they have cinematically dramatic lives, and yes, there is comedy. I admire its spirit, its fearlessness, and the way it nonchalantly brags that it is one of the most one-of-a-kind movies of the 2000s. But I'm not so sure it is an entirely successful film, one minute an off-kilter romp, the next a tragedy in which death is a very real thing. It makes for the kind of movie you admire, not adore; good thing my admiration knows no bounds. It stars James Gandolfini as Nick Murder, a family man who has begun having an affair with sexy redhead Tula (a likable Kate Winslet), who works at a lingerie store down the street and who talks with an Irish accent either titillating or mood killing, depending on your mindset. Nick has been married to the level headed Kitty (Susan Sarandon) for decades, and is the father of a trio of daughters (Mary Louise Parker, Mandy Moore, Aida Turturro), who, more or less, need to pull their lives together. He is having an affair not because he doesn't love his family but because he is bored by everyday routine; to say he is suffering from a mid-life crisis would be an understatement. So you could say that Kitty's discovery of the going-ons is a virtue in disguise - it causes Nick to see clearly for the first time in years, as he is given the opportunity to either throw away what he has worked hard for in his personal life or to gain new perspective and realize just how lucky of a man he is. Unfortunately, though, his compulsive utilizations of romance and cigarettes may be lethal. Overweight, chain-smoking adulterers are never visions of health, and Nick is no exception. Though I like the way Turturro tells the story - he mixes wise ass comedy, painstakingly realistic family drama, and makeshift musicality - I cannot say that he does so without expected setbacks. To have the cast sing with classic songs rather than belt them out alone with "Grease" theatricality is appealing but also ersatz; while some scenes are bettered by the aforementioned risk, others go way far out of place, particularly the opening number, if I can even call it a "number." The comedy goes for out-there dryness, fitting most of the time until the ending goes against the tone the film works so hard for. At least the cast, indelibly charismatic, is game; sometimes, they convince us "Romance & Cigarettes" is a great film. But once it ends and we're forced to look opinion face to face, it becomes necessary to make the decision as to whether or not supporting player Christopher Walken embodying a musical star is a saving grace. It's all very uneven, but there are components of the movie that work very well; some will love how far beyond it strays from usual musical fare, while others may be confused as to what film Turturro is necessarily trying to make. My opinion crosses both paths, that works well enough for me. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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