Down with Love
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| Down With Love | |
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 Down With Love DVD |
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| Directed by | Peyton Reed |
| Produced by | Paddy Cullen |
| Written by | Eve Ahlert Dennis Drake |
| Starring | Ewan McGregor Renée Zellweger David Hyde Pierce Sarah Paulson |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | May 16, 2003 |
| Running time | 94 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Down with Love is an American romantic comedy motion picture released in the United States on May 9, 2003. It stars Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, David Hyde Pierce, Sarah Paulson, and Tony Randall in his final film performance. The movie is an homage of the films made by Rock Hudson and Doris Day in the late 1950s and early 1960s, most notably Pillow Talk (1959) and Lover Come Back (1961).
The sets, costumes, cinematography, editing, score and special effects are carefully designed to give the impression that the movie was actually shot in 1962, even to the extent of digitally recreating the New York skyline and developing a greenscreen technique simulating 1960s rear projection. While the plot reflects the attitudes and behaviour of the pre-sexual revolution early sixties, the film has an anachronistic subtext driven by more modern, post-feminist ideas and attitudes; the script mixing early 21st Century ideas with the type of light-hearted banter that dominated films of the early 1960s.
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[edit] Synopsis
Down with Love is the story of Barbara Novak (Zellweger), a farm girl from Maine, who finds fame and fortune as the author of 'Down With Love', a book that tells women to become liberated and free from male domination by giving up on love and substituting chocolate for physical pleasure. Meanwhile, ace reporter Catcher Block (McGregor), a playboy in the classic sense, sets out to expose her as a fraud, and invents an alter ego, 'Major Zip Martin', to seduce her. Zip Martin is an astronaut, and the name is dreamt up by Catcher, in a dry cleaners, where he sees the words "zippers" and "martinizing", but is also a spoof of the name Buzz Aldrin.
Along the way, Barbara's garrulous editor and publicist (Paulson) and Catcher's naïve, insecure best friend and boss Peter (Pierce) provide comic relief.
[edit] Trivia
- The musical number seen during the closing credits (and in its entirety on the DVD release) was a last-minute addition to the film. Ewan McGregor suggested that since he and Renée Zellweger had recently appeared in two very popular musical films (Moulin Rouge! and Chicago, respectively), it only made sense for the two of them to do a song together. Songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman appear in the number as the bartender and the pianist.
- The film features a reference to CinemaScope, a now defunct widescreen process debuted in the 1950s, the time period in which Down With Love is set. 20th Century Fox - who released this film - developed and owns the rights to CinemaScope.
[edit] Soundtrack
- Kissing A Fool (Album Version) — Michael Bublé
- For Once In My Life (Album Version) — Michael Bublé
- Down With Love (Album Version) — Michael Bublé and Holly Palmer
- Barbara Arrives (Album Version) — Marc Shaiman
- Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words) (Count Basie And His Orchestra) (Album Version) — Frank Sinatra
- One Mint Julep (Album Version) — Xavier Cugat And His Orchestra
- Girls Night Out (Album Version) — Marc Shaiman
- Everyday Is A Holiday With You (Album Version) — Esthero
- Barbara Meets Zip (Album Version) — Marc Shaiman
- Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words) (Album Version) — Astrud Gilberto
- Love in Three Acts (Album Version) — Marc Shaiman
- Here's To Love (Album Version) — Renee Zellweger and Ewan Mcgregor
