I'll Do Anything

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I'll Do Anything

Theatrical release poster
Directed by James L. Brooks
Produced by James L. Brooks
Polly Platt
Written by James L. Brooks
Starring Nick Nolte
Whittni Wright
Albert Brooks
Julie Kavner
Joely Richardson
Tracey Ullman
Music by Hans Zimmer
Cinematography Michael Ballhaus
Editing by Richard Marks
Distributed by Sony Pictures
Release date(s) February 4, 1994
Running time 115 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $44,000,000 (estimated)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

I'll Do Anything is a 1994 American dramedy film written and directed by James L. Brooks. Its primary plot concerns a down-on-his-luck actor who suddenly finds himself the sole caretaker of his six-year-old daughter.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

In 1980, on the night he fails to win an Emmy Award, Matt Hobbs proposes to his longtime girlfriend Beth. He says the only thing holding him back is his dedication to his career, one which may not always work out, and Beth says that's one of the things she loves most about him. Little more than a year later, with a baby crying and no job for Matt, Beth is overflowing with resentment. By 1993, the pair have been divorced for several years and are living on opposite coasts. Matt auditions for a role in pompous, self-absorbed, and obviously clueless film producer Burke Adler's new project but fails to get the part. He does however agree to chauffeur Adler occasionally. Matt flies to Georgia to pick up his daughter Jeannie for what he believes is a brief visit and discovers Beth is facing a prison term and Jeannie will be living with him for the duration of her sentence. The two return to Hollywood and struggle with their new circumstances and building a relationship (Matt hasn't seen the six-year-old since she was four). When Matt goes in to make a screen test for a lead in a film, he leaves Jeannie with a friend at the studio, and when he picks her up he's stunned to learn she's been cast in a television sitcom. There are multiple sub-plots, including one focusing on Matt's relationship with staff script-reader Cathy Breslow and another concerning test screening analyst Nan Mulhanney and her tumultuous relationship with Adler. While a large part of the film is a satire of the film industry, it also skewers relationships from various angles.

[edit] Principal cast

[edit] Critical reaction

Originally I'll Do Anything was conceived and filmed as an old-fashioned movie musical, featuring songs by Carole King, Prince, and Sinéad O'Connor, among others, with choreography by Twyla Tharp. Ironically for a film that satirizes the industry practices of making creative choices by committee and catering to mass audiences and test screenings, when preview audiences reactions to the music were overwhelmingly negative, all production numbers from the film were cut prior to its release. In his three-star review in the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert called it "one of those offcenter comedies that gets its best moments simply by looking at people and seeing how funny, how pathetic, how wonderful they sometimes can be . . . it's a bright, edgy, funny story about people who have all the talent they need, but not all the luck . . . It is helpful, I think, to simply forget about the missing songs, and recognize that I'll Do Anything is a complete movie without them - smart, original, subversive." [1] Janet Maslin of the New York Times described it as "droll" and "improbably buoyant." [2]

[edit] Music

One of the original songs meant to be performed in the film is heard during the closing credits and is included on the soundtrack album released by Varese Sarabande, along with four instrumental tracks by the film's composer, Hans Zimmer [3]. While other versions of songs penned by Prince resurfaced on one of his later projects, The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale, none of the performances from the movie were ever released.

Although James L. Brooks has mentioned he would like to release a Directors Cut restoring the musical numbers and including a making-of documentary, that project has yet to come to fruition. The film's commercially released version is available on DVD.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Roger Ebert review in the Chicago Sun-Times, February 4, 1994
  2. ^ Janet Maslin review in the New York Times, February 4, 1994
  3. ^ I'll Do Anything soundtrack at SoundtrackCollector.com

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Films directed by James L. Brooks
Terms of Endearment (1983) • Broadcast News (1987) • I'll Do Anything (1994) • As Good as It Gets (1997) • Spanglish (2004)