Life or Something
Like It has a good concept, but is terribly fitted by a
horrendous screenplay. I enjoyed some of the scenes, as well
as Angelina Jolie’s performance; but the film as a whole is
lacking in many areas. The plot stars a woman named Lanie
Kerrigan who is a hard-working newscaster for a popular
station. She is set to be happily marries to a professional
baseball player, and is in store for a promotion that will
allow her to report to a broader audience, on a more highly
rated network. Everything is going perfectly for her.
Her “life” is moving in the
right direction, but it makes a wrong turn when she enters an
interview, which she later regrets taking, though it does
better her opinion on morals and values. In the interview, she
talks to a homeless prophet who says that he is able to talk
to god, enabling him to see the future. He offers his
predictions on a sporting event and the weather forecast.
These prophecies were outlandish, but turned out to be true,
the team that he favored won the game, and hale fell from the
sky the next morning.
These two predictions were
not the only ones that he made, there was one more. He
predicted that Lanie would die seven days from the day of the
interview. The man who put her up to interviewing the prophet
claimed that the predictions accuracy levels were simply
coincidences with the actual events, but she believed
otherwise. For the next few days she decided to find the real
meaning of life, and succeeded. The few cherished moments she
had in those few 24 hour periods to add to her null collection
were some of the best ever. But in the middle of it all, the
network chooses to grant her the promotion that she had been
anxious to get, and her chaotic lifestyle starts back up
again. Are these stressful ways she lives by a real
explanation of life, or just “Something like it?”
This actual theme of the
story presents quite a touching feel, but the screenplay that
presents it is boring, tired, and repetitive. What are the
chances that a prophet is going to stumble upon a reporter who
would soon be dying? The screenplay is illogical and has no
philosophy, it has no morals itself whatsoever. The
emotionally shallow Lanie Kerrigan could’ve been written by a
couple of kindergarteners, and it’s a miracle that Jolie was
able to make such a poorly done character so magnificent to
watch. She holds the entire film together, and it’s amazing
that she chose this material over all of the other scripts
that came flying into her office . Who would ever guess that
she and Warner Brothers, two very big names in the movie
business, would go for such terribly written crap? I certainly
wouldn’t have.
Life or Something
Like It has some interesting parts, and is never painful,
but isn’t exactly the best stuff in the world to watch. It is
an enjoyable rental, but otherwise, I wouldn’t bother. Upon
reflection, I am able to say that it is of T.V. movie quality,
and could’ve benefited by going directly to HBO, though it had
to be theatrically released for economical reasons. I wasn’t
tremendously pleased with the end result, though it is not
horrible. If there is nothing else left on the shelves in the
local Blockbuster, Life or Something Like It is
worth checking out, and is an okay way to spend a Friday
night.
-Danny, Bucket Reviews