Mad Times

Alex and Emma

I would have dearly loved to have walked out of this movie, but since we were watching it on an airplane it wasn't really an option.

Luke Wilson plays Alex, a writer with writer's block. He borrowed money from some gangsters and lost it gambling so they're going to kill him unless he comes up with the bucks. He can only pay them back if he finishes his new book and collects the money for it. But he has writer's block so he hires a court stenographer to take dictation of the book. The usually delightful Kate Hudson plays the stenographer.

As they begin to work on the book, the movie splits and shows the action of the book as it is written and revised intermixed with the "real" world of Alex and Emma who start off being prickly toward each other and then lighten up and fall in love. Oops, told you the end. Rob Reiner directed this disaster. I can see how the pitch might have sounded good, but when you've got a writer writing a really stupid book, you've got to balance it with a real-world story that is solid and meaningful. Instead, the movie story is exactly the same story as that in the book, and they're both unspeakably idiotic. Don't waste your time.