ALEX & EMMA -----------
Alex (Luke Wilson, "Legally Blonde") has thirty days to write a novel in order to pay the loan sharks hovering over him and his gambling debt, so he hires a stenographer (Kate Hudson, "Four Feathers") to take dictation. As Emma makes story suggestions, the love story on the page begins to cross over into the reality of "Alex & Emma."
Veteran director Rob Reiner resurfaces for the first time since 1999's "The Story of Us" with a less experienced technical crew and turns in a cliched romance with a distractingly cheesy look. After a shaky start, Wilson and Hudson manage to inject some charm into the proceedings, but "Alex & Emma" is a very slight affair.
After being dangled out of his Back Bay apartment window by Cuban thugs Bobby (Lobo Sebastian, "Ghosts of Mars") and Tony (Chino XL, "The Beat"), Alex must deliver $100K in one month or kiss this planet goodbye. The blocked writer appeals to his publisher, but Wirschafter (Reiner) has little sympathy when he learns Alex's $75K advance has literally gone to the dogs and simply advises the author to get busy. Writers Jeremy Leven, Adam and Andy Scheinman and Reiner (who began this screenplay as an adaptation of Dostoyevsky's "The Gambler" but veered significantly away from the source) introduce Emma in a 'meet cute' that feels false and makes Hudson struggle to appear natural.
Once over that hump, Emma sees to it that Alex begins producing, then begins to challenge his decisions. When he creates a location, the island of St. Charles, but names a real explorer as its discoverer, Emma tells him he's perverting history. His hero, Adam Shipley (Wilson), is a tutor who falls instantly in love with his boss Polina Delacroix (Sophie Marceau, "Braveheart"), but she's indebted to John Shaw (David Paymer, "State and Main") and will need to marry him to retain her lush, Gatsbyesque lifestyle.
Adam will need money in order to pursue her and a gambling casino is introduced. A Swedish au pair, Ylva (Hudson), is added to create a triangle, but Alex keeps changing her name and nationality in reaction to working with Emma. After a 'break' for a montage of the couple checking out various Boston landmarks, Emma realizes she's falling for Alex and she begins to ask about Polina's genesis.
While the idea has all the hallmarks of a good romantic comedy, Reiner can't get his movie off the ground. The story Alex dictates is such a simplistic period restyling of his current conundrum that it is unbelievable that it would fetch a $200K fee. Luke Wilson has a loose-limbed, shaggy appeal as Alex/Adam, but Emma is supposed to be made loveable by her insistence on reading the ending of a book first and peeling the skins off tomatoes. Hudson does what she can (with her mother's voice and mannerisms peeking through), but the character is a bit of a lump. Hudson has a field day, however, with the Swedish Ylva, German Elsa and Spanish Eldora before settling into the more practical American Anna in Alex's book. She rises to the comic challenge but the script drags her back down to earth. The rest of the storybook cast play their roles like a backwater theater troupe (even a cameo by Cloris Leachman disappoints). Marceau has a hammy, vampish quality in period, but is simply terrible when she appears in the real world. Reiner's appearances smack of director cameo rather than character.
Adding to the generally numbing experience is the obviousness of a backlot subbing for Boston paired with dreary sets. Cinematographer Gavin Finney provides a washed-out look with occasional focus problems. Editing gaffes exist as well. One simply shouldn't be thinking about how cheaply made a Hollywood movie looks throughout its running time, but "Alex & Emma" offers little else to ponder.
C-
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