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Laramie Movie Scope:
Life, or Something Like It

Another riff on carpe diem

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by Robert Roten, Film Critic
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April 27, 2002 -- "Life, or Something Like It" is another one of those movies about how you should live for today and not worry about the future so much. The idea is carpe diem, or seize the day, live in the moment.

Angelina Jolie of "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" stars as a Seattle television reporter, Lanie Kerigan, who has her gaze set firmly on the future, a network job and a trophy husband, pro baseball player Cal Cooper (Christian Kane of "Summer Catch"). She thinks her life is perfect. Then a street prophet named Jack (Tony Shalhoub of "The Man Who Wasn't There") tells her she is going to die in five days. When several of Jack's prophecies come true, Lanie decides she had better spend her last days doing what she really wants to do. She stops exercising, pigs out on junk food, and gets drunk.

The basic message of the film is a good one. It is very similar to philosopher Joseph Campbell's advice to "follow your bliss," and good things will happen. Some small parts of the film are moving and inspiring. There are also a lot of problems with the way the film is put together. First of all, the characters don't seem real. They are a lot more like Hollywood actors than real journalists. There isn't any real chemistry between the romantic leads, Jolie and Edward Burns ("Sidewalks of New York") who plays Pete, the cameraman. Shalhoub is good as Prophet Jack, but he is about the only interesting character in the film. Amanda Tapping of the "Stargate SG-1" TV show appears briefly in the film as a morning show hostess. There doesn't seem to be any character who has a genuine emotion in the film. They all just seem to be going through the motions. The story is anemic and the character motivations seemed quite arbitrary.

Lanie's interview with Deborah Connors (Stockard Channing of "The Business of Strangers") is supposed to be the big, dramatic, defining scene in the film, but it comes off very awkwardly and is poorly staged. The actors are all likeable enough, but they just don't seem to become the characters. Lanie's bimbo broadcaster act reminded me of the the Eagle's song "Dirty Laundry," the part which goes, "Bubble-headed bleach-blonde comes on at five. She can tell you about the plane crash with a gleam in her eye. It's interesting when people die, we love dirty laundry." Lanie seems to be more of a caricature of a newsperson than an attempt to portray a real newscaster. Many of the characters seemed like sketches of characters rather than real people. While this film does touch on some worthwhile subjects, it is weak and ineffective in its construction. This film rates a C.

Click here for links to places to buy this movie in video and/or DVD format, the soundtrack, books, even used videos, games and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

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Copyright © 2002 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.
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Robert Roten can be reached via e-mail at my last name at lariat dot org. [Mailer button: image of letter and envelope]

(If you e-mail me with a question about this or any other movie or review, please mention the name of the movie you are asking the question about, otherwise I may have no way of knowing which film you are referring to)