by Evan James
Laws of Attractions
dir. Howitt
Opens Fri April 30
Various Theaters
Romantic comedies and romance novels have their marketable formula down pat: showcase the life of a confident, ultra-successful and seemingly independent career woman with a practical, reasonable attitude and remarkable personal control. Add a messy, chaotic, rough-and-tumble hunk who crashes into the leading lady’s world, dashing her sense of certainty and order. Of course, her independence turns out to be illusory, as she realizes that a loving marriage is the standard of stability and wholeness she’s lacked all along. The male character hardly changes: it’s the woman who must, inevitably, metamorphose into a stunning butterfly whose beauty is frigid and incomplete in the absence of her alpha-male counterpart.
Laws of Attraction is no stranger to this cash-cow formula, but its seamless articulation of this structure is a work of art among romantic comedies. Not to mention that Pierce Brosnan is an OUTRAGEOUS SEX BOMB.
Julianne Moore and Brosnan play opposite one another as Audrey Woods and Daniel Rafferty, two of New York’s most acclaimed divorce attorneys. Woods is sharp, logical, and virtually sexless–until Rafferty comes along to stoke her coals. Throughout her career, Woods has never lost a case, until Rafferty–a disheveled, reckless law desperado–kicks her panties off in the courtroom and sends her tidy universe into circumstances BEYOND HER CONTROL. It isn’t long before Woods gets drunk enough to fuck the emotionally sensitive and unpredictable Rafferty, and drinking persists as the only outlet for Woods to succumb to her sexual instincts. The two wind up opposing each other in a divorce case between a fashion designer and a rock star (Parker Posey and Michael Sheen). They drink themselves silly once more and wake up hitched after a night of belligerent tomfoolery.
Laws of Attraction is a flawlessly functional romantic comedy. I highly recommend it for those desiring heartwarming love-resolutions, or researching how to write romantic comedy screenplays. And, if I remember correctly, we get to see Brosnan with his shirt off three or four times, and once in a pair of skimpy black briefs.