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The Muse review
:. Director: Albert Brooks
:. Starring: Sharon Stone, Albert Brooks
:. Running Time: 1:37
:. Year: 1999
:. Country: USA
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Albert Brooks's latest will satisfy existant fans and make room for new ones: especially those for whom light paranoia and irony count.
In the first half of the movie we find Brooks as a screenwriter being taken out to lunch by a young arrogant producer (who proudly informs Brooks that he is in possession of the couch used in Saving Private Ryan) who callously informs him that he has "lost his edge" and promptly drops him from his contract. Lorenzo Lamas happens to saunter past , and the producer gushes over Lamas's brilliant script, adding insult to injury in classic Brooks fashion.
Suffering from writer's block, and worried how he will support his wife (Andie McDowell) and two daughters, Brooks goes to see his fellow scriptwriter Jeff Bridges (in a radical departure from his Big Lebowski character; here he's a rich, fit, tan scriptwriter) who agrees to lend him his Muse (Sharon Stone), whom he must support financially. He puts her up at the Four Seasons, and when that doesn't work out, into his home. Now part of a threesome, Brooks finds this Muse taking over his home, helping his wife set up a successful cookie business and not helping him, leading him to fear that her energies are being sucked out of her. Everytime he turns around, another famouse Albert Brooks is lavishing gifts and prasie on her. Hilarious cameos by Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, and Rob Reiner give authenticity to this insider story that underlines the importance placed on "the big ones.".
The Muse pokes fun at the self obsessed City of Industry. Only in LA could a muse be put up at the Four Seasons and allude to her part in the success of the Truman Show and Titanic.The funniest sequences include Brooks walking miles on the Universal lot to a meeting with Steven Spielberg (who as the Supreme God in Hollywood would, of course, be at the top of the mount) as he is not deemed important enough to have a drive up (No matter, he ends up meeting Steven's cousin, Sam Spielberg, played deadpan by Steven Wright), Scorsese's ramblings about remaking Raging Bull, Brooks chatting it up with an Italian at Spago's who misinterprets everything he says, and playing tennis with Jeff Bridges.
Irony is what rules this movie, since you won't be falling out of your chair over Brooks's knee slappers. He is, after all, much more refined than Jim Carrey. We watch Brooks' uneasiness and jealousy grow as his wife's career flourishes just as he is encouraged to "take some time off". It's a timely movie, now that teen movies rule and writers have to be as old as their subjects in order to have credibility, a middle aged writer is an anomaly. Insider Hollywood information is nothing new to the public. After all, several movies (The Player, Swimming with Sharks, Burn Hollywood Burn, HurlyBurly) have covered this material. Brooks, though, does something different. He makes fun of Hollywood like one would relatives at a family reunion, but he makes fun of himself, too. For all the irony, it seems growing old is not easy in this business for actresses and scriptwriters. Also, Brooks shows what probably most people in the entertainment industry are: people who work and have families and do not live and breath Hollywood. Not everyone is powerful, perverted, and drugged, and eternally 25.
While the film is well paced and enjoyable, the acting is not all top notch. Brooks is in top form as Brooks, Sharon Stone sparkles and is quite funny, while Andie McDowell is flat. All the same, Brooks may not be Julia Roberts, but he will make you laugh.
Fred Thom
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