Laurel Canyon Movie Review:


"Laurel Canyon" is a film about relationships and how being exposed to a different type of lifestyle can alter a people’s perceptions of themselves,
others, and reality.

The title of the film comes from the street that separates the residents of the Hollywood Hills and the residents of the San
Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California. This area is where Jane (McDormand), a successful record producer, lives. Jane sports AC/DC t-shirts
and lives a wild and crazy lifestyle even though she over 40 years old.

Her son is Sam (Bale), who has just graduated along with his fiancée Alex (Beckinsale) from Harvard Medical School. Sam and Alex have decided to move Los Angeles, where Sam can complete his residency at a nearby psychiatric institute and Alex can complete her dissertation on fruit flies. Jane has promised Sam and his fiancée, whom she has never met, that they can stay in her home, which is understood to be vacant.

On their flight out to Los Angeles, Sam continues to warn Alex about his mother’s way of life and how embarrassing she is to him. When the couple arrives at Jane’s home, they learn that the house is not empty as promised. Jane has a new band, in which she is lovers with the lead singer (Nivola), recording their album at her home. The couple consequently decides to stay at the home until they can find an apartment.

Sam continues to be drawn away from his mother, as Alex’s exposure to her wildlife style brings her interest in the band and to Jane. All of the characters’ relationships are tested as the consequences in the house bring many disagreements and anger.

Writer/Director Lisa Cholodenko’s directorial work and script are fine until the last twenty minutes of the film. I don’t want to ruin the ending, but the understanding and resolutions at the end are way too quick and sort of unbelievable. The story is also predictable for the most part; the audience knows what will happen before it actually does.

The characters are well rounded and Jane is a wonderfully sketch rock-n-roll mom. The only
character that needed more development was Sara, who is Sam’s fellow resident worker that grows an attraction with him. Cholodenko is a filmmaker that
knows how to present and tell stories of relationships with differences. Her
first feature film was the well-received "High Art". She holds strong onto the influences that people can have on relationships and couples with "Laurel
Canyon," but the last few scenes of the story could have been lengthened.

Frances McDormand is excellent as the free-spirited record-producing mom named Jane. McDormand just really lets you know Jane by giving the impression of what the script reflects. Her delivery and impressions are brilliant, as always. Christian Bale is proficient as Sam and Kate
Beckinsale seems at times to be wandering, but she delivers a fitting performance as Alex. As Ian, Alessandro Nivola has a fun time by telling
everyone "cheers" and actually playing the guitar and lending his musical voice in the film. Natascha McElhone develops bad Middle-Eastern accent that
becomes annoying in her portrayal as Sara. McElhone, who is the talented actress from "Solaris," has solid range, but her role isn’t that well
developed in this film.

"Laurel Canyon" presents a group of different characters and their journey through the changing and maintaining of relationships. The shallow
ending really brings down the film to being overall mild. It isn’t a bad film, it is watchable and Frances McDormand is once again great.

Grade: C

04/2703

Joseph Tucker

A superb cast, lovely direction and an intriguing storyline help make this otherwise fairly standard drama quite watchable. Sam and Alex (Bale and Beckinsale) have finished their studies at Harvard Medical School and are heading to stay with Sam's mother Jane (McDormand) in L.A., where Sam will start his residence and Alex will work on her doctoral thesis.

But what Alex doesn't know is that Jane is a successful record producer with a rather loose and easy L.A. lifestyle--something Sam couldn't really warn her about. Jane's latest young boyfriend is Ian (Nivola), a British musician recording a new album in her poolside studio with his band (Barlow, Pollard and Wasif). And while Sam gets to know a colleague (McElhone) at the hospital, Alex enjoys this easygoing life a bit too much!

Writer-director Cholodenko has a terrific eye for capturing L.A. on screen, from the tricky geography to the laid-back lifestyle and cut-throat business culture. She also has a great ear for natural dialog that makes the film snap and spark as the characters interact in unusually realistic ways ... although like many films, they just refuse to really talk to each other until the histrionic finale!

McDormand once again creates an unforgettable character in Jane, a woman without any real hang-ups, although we see the carefree mask slip at a couple of key moments. She shines in every scene, and makes the film hers alone, even though it's really about Sam and Alex. Bale is always compelling, and his interaction with the tempting McElhone is fascinating; while the rather bland Beckinsale gives her best-yet performance as a young woman struggling (and failing) to maintain self-control.

While the plot itself is fairly standard East versus West Coast stuff, there's a rawness to the character interaction that makes the film well worth seeing. And it's full of wonderful throwaway moments that say much more than anything else in here.

Rich Cline

Site Contents Copyright© The Z Review, unless used with permission.This site has no intention to infringe on the rights of the film owners of Laurel Canyon and intellectual copyright holders of the movies mentioned herein & hold copyright over the movie, characters, merchandise & storyline.