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Thu. Feb. 22, 2001
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Art & Culture > Movie &Theatre > Archive
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Movie Review: Sweet November
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Sweet November(2001), directed by Pat O'Connor, is a remake of the 1960's film. It is a love story that attempts to draw a line between ambition and love.
The film stars Keanu Reeves (The Matrix) and Charlize Theron (The Cider House Rules) who also teamed up for the 1997 mega hit The Devil's Advocate. However, their chemistry in Sweet November does not enhance the melodramatic storyline and sub par acting that plague the film. Compared to their previous stellar performance, Reeves and Theron seem like a couple of shaky beginners who just received their first major roles.
Keanu Reeves plays an uptight and overly ambitious Nelson Moss, who has everything going for him. While at the DMV, he runs into Sara Deever (Charlize Theron), a self-pronounced free spirit. Although an unlikely couple, the two agree to live together for one month (November) after Sara convinces him that she will change his life for the better by showing him that there are other things to live for besides wealth and power.
What happens during the trial month is a quirky mish mash of corny lines, corny situations, and corny acting that obviously produce a corny movie. It is quite disappointing to see talented actors like Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron reduce acting to a hobby - one can hardly bear so much meaningless dribble in one (two-hour at that) sitting.
In addition, Sweet November, as simple as it is, is confusing at times because it lacks intensity and seriousness. The transition between child's play and romance is barely noticeable, perhaps due to the sub par acting or the flat script. Although it is a straightforward love story, it leaves you wondering if the producer intended it to be a quirky drive thru romance; if so, then by all means, he should be congratulated on a job well done. Throughout motion picture history, has romance died within the love story genera?
The idea behind the movie actually seeks to transcend an important message about how people can easily become too preoccupied with "making it" that they often lose touch with what makes them human: things like love, simplicity, and piousness. There is nothing wrong with being ambitious if we remember that it is people that make money and not money that makes people.
Ironically, as a movie that deals with that never-ending battle between humanistic and materialistic love, it seems that the film was made just to rake up more money from eager moviegoers seeking a nice "date" movie. To some extent, Sweet November appears as if it took less than two days to make. It presents no insight or originality to the ever-changing convoluted Hollywood philosophy of Love. The string of quirky and spontaneous events overshadows the principal elements of commitment and faith - which are the basis of love, are they not?
The story is simply too unrealistic for its producer to expect audiences to believe that such a dubious thing could happen in real life (if that was at all a part of his intention). Not only is the storyline unconventional, it is also void of any morality concerning how men and women should conduct themselves: spontaneously living together for a month without any hint of commitment or a future is definitely not a way to form a meaningful lifelong relationship.
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