Eddie and Gwen
Kiki and Lee
The Plot
America's Sweethearts, starring Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Billy Crystal, and John Cusack, is a comedy about a very famous Hollywood couple who have a fairly public breakup. The most popular couple in the United States, Gwen Harrison and Eddie Thomas have split up. Gwen (Catherine Zeta-Jones) has hooked-up with a young Spanish gentleman who she is happily living with. Eddie however, is not taking the break-up as well as Gwen, and is in a retreat in the mountains, tucked away from civilization, getting treatment. Kiki, Gwen's sister and assistant has teamed up with Lee, a legendary press agent to make the couple appear as though they're back together. Many stunts are pulled to get the two together in front of the press, where pictures are taken to be added to rumours of reconciliation. During all the madness Kiki reunites with Eddie, her old time friend, and finds there may be more than just friendship that she has returned to.
Review
This movie, in my opinion, was a great romantic comedy. Seeing the life of a famous couple behind the scenes is more interesting than it sounds. The script was great, and many lines in the movie makes me laugh hysterically. The actors/actresses were well chosen for each character, and included one of my personal favourites: Julia Roberts. The director captured Catherine Zeta-Jones in a truly self-absorbed role which kept me watching intently to hear another conceded line. Billy Crystal, the man with the original idea for the movie, acted exceptionally well as the mentor for young Seth Green, a press agent in training. John Cusack acted out a well rounded hopeless romantic man, looking to salvage his marriage. He did a great job at acting very laid back, as though he were mostly "out of it" for the entire film. Julia Roberts, played her role best as the assistant/sister of Catherine Zeta-Jones. Her "Cinderella" image was fantastic and made the crowd believe that people exist with the patience to wait on their siblings for their every command. This was a great film but the one fault I could have found was that the plot was a little bit flaky, the movie wasn't really about the movie, it was more about seeing the famous actors/actresses in the movie. It doesn't pretend to be deep or moving it was merely created for an hour and a half of entertainment. It is a fairly predictable movie and most people would find parts a bit sappy, and that tends to turn people off, other than those features the movie was quite the success in my opinion. Overall this was one of many excellent films I saw in 2001 and found it's fluffy plot and fun actors/actresses make a great impression on us.
