Alex & Emma (2003)

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Luke Wilson plays a struggling writer (Alex) who owes the Cuban mafia $100,000, so one day two goons scare the crap out of him by barging into his run- down apartment and dangling him out the window for a while and then setting his computer on fire. They give Alex just thirty more days to come up with the cash, since Alex promises he can make the payment as soon as he finishes writing his latest novel, for which he has already been promised a check from his publisher (Rob Reiner) upon completion. The only problem is, since his computer has been trashed (smart move by the thugs), he hires a critical stenographer named Emma (Kate Hudson) to type his story down while he thinks it up. This budding tale of love takes us into and out of boring fictional vignettes, consisting of a written love triangle between the main male character (played also by Wilson) and two young women (Hudson and Sophie Marceau). Of course the expected happens, as Alex and Emma start to fall for each other in real life while working together on the book, and finding out that art imitates life. First off, Wilson and Hudson are not very engaging as a couple. Secondly, there are the usual love story clichés galore here. We never get the feeling for a second that Alex is up against the ticking clock while he casually and quite comfortably prepares his novel (almost down to the last second), even though the Cuban mafia has already vowed to come back and kill him if he's not done in time. This is a boring and uninteresting affair, and hard to believe it came from director Rob Reiner, the same man who gave us the very agreeable WHEN HARRY MET SALLY. My girlfriend is going to have to come up with some better chick flicks than this if she wants me to give in and try watching some of her favorites with her. *1/2 out of ****

Wilson plays Alex, a best selling author with writers block while trying to start his next novel. He owes money to The Cuban Mafia and has been given 30 days to pay or a very short lifetime to regret it. This is a task not made easier given the fact that the Cuban heavy's have cooked his laptop. As a result, he hires law stenographer Emma, (Hudson), so he can dictate the novel to her as a means to an end to get a manuscript.I found the first 15 minutes of Alex & Emma, very funny indeed, especially when Wilson was trying to hide from the Cubans by trying to prop the door closed with a chair that was far too small and then being dangled mercilessly above the street by his feet. It remains hilariously funny when we first meet Hudson's character and the ruse in which he had lured her to his apartment.I was settling down to watch what I thought was going to be a homage like throwback to the 1930's screwball comedies that I love so much, especially given the 1920's style opening titles.But then it changed kilter completely to standard rom-com fayre. It was quite bland in fact. And the constant flitting between the real and the fictional book story became irksome very quickly. It quickly became a film within a film and left me slightly confused as to which characters I was meant to be giving attention and/or sympathies. However, seeing Sophie Marceau and Kate Hudson in many scenes is more than adequate compensation for a red blooded man.Marceau can hardly be recognised as the femme fatale from the Bond film The World Is Not Enough, as in this movie, she sports a Louise Brookes/Clara Bow style haircut. Marceau plays it for laughs but sadly gets very few of them, but the Marceau/Wilson sex scene, (all tastefully delivered in silhouette) is very amusing, especially given the next shot where they are both head to foot in baby oil to indicate energetic perspiration.I did like the character of Emma, an independent sassy career girl as we've seen Hudson play before in flicks like How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days. Since Alicia Silverstone disappeared of the map, Hudson is the only actress I can watch that sets the old pulse racing and any film she appears in always goes to the top of my to watch list.Now comes the most difficult part of my review, describing the ending. OH MY GOD! the ending actually made me want to vomit into the nearest receptacle as it descended into the most diabetes inducing sweet twee garbage I've ever seen in a rom-com, and I love rom-com's.Gripe aside, Alex & Emma wasn't that bad but too many changes of direction. Screwball/Rom-Com, Contemporary/Period, Funny/Not Funny. It was all too much for my poor brain to cope with in 96 short minutes.A nice cameo from director Reiner complements this enjoyable but very disjointed movie.Enjoy!

At the beginning of the film it failed to capture my attention. But as the characters began to develop i was pulled into the story of poor Alex and feisty Emma. I really liked the plot outline with the narrative characters developing alongside Alex and Emma.I actually felt moved in the beginning when Emma lost the stenograph pages which surprised me.One major niggle did occur to me though about the whole '30 days' thing i would have given the film a higher rating if it had focused on wit and humour than macho men/suspense. After a while i also felt that it needed more edge something more than just a battle of the sexes. Anyway it diverted my attention plausibly and i give a rating of: 5/10

What a waste of an interesting comedy. Could've been wonderful, seriously, it could've been, but...Anyway, I've grown tired of this recent trend that romantic comedies can't be either romantic or a comedy. Well, I guess it's not a recent trend, but there's a huge problem with it. This movie was neither funny nor tear-jerking nor anything of importance. Which is really sad, considering its director.The "plot" is that a writer has a limited time to write a book and so he dictates it to a hired secretary. Two romances are going on; one in the book world and one in the real world. Neither are romantic. A waste, a crying shame, whatever you want to call it, DON'T see this movie. Go watch Love, Actually or another good rom-com. Let this burn in the depths of Hollywood Hell.