Sadly Over-hyped

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Recall the MTv video for Tom Petty's "Into the Great Wide Open," Johnny Depp's "Eddie Rebel" and Faye Dunaway's would-be talentmeister. Rocket to Stardom. Everybody's got their knobs on "11." Where's the next new face, the next new pair of legs, the next new set of…?Pieces and players in the utterly denied, approval-seeking chess game we play up here back of the sign. We think we really =are= soooooooooo clever and on top of our… games. But we're just as obviously duplicitous, manipulative, competitive, seductive, jealous, petty, stimulation-obsessed and stupid when we're stoned as those people on Whittier or Budlong. We all run around declaiming that narcissism (as well as our determination to stay that way). But the instant an opportunity comes our way, the money's down. Everybody north of Ventura or east of Lankershim wants to =be= us. Or what they think we are. They should watch this first.Beckinsale =should= do more films like this (and she has). Francis should, too (and she does). Okay; now that all that's out of my system: This is an okay little art house piece actors and directors love to make to look at how people say this and do that. And then drive their little yellow school buses full of curious but confused, rule-bound but over-excited inner children over the cliff. In this one, at least, the characters "take responsibility" for the consequences the way people in Beverly Hills tend to… and then go right back to whatever it was they were doing to jack their lives up. Boredom is just the very worst thing one can admit to up here. And I really need to see a film like this every now and again.

Writer/director Lisa Cholodenko follows up her much-acclaimed 1997 debut High Art with this examination of a young couple seduced into a hedonistic, left-coast lifestyle. Taking its title from its central locale, Laurel Canyon focuses on a pair of upper-middle class lovebirds from the East Coast who relocate to Los Angeles.The film stars Frances McDormand, Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale, Natascha McElhone, and Alessandro Nivola.Freshly graduating from Harvard,Sam and Alex are eager to continue their medical studies out West, but they need some lodging while they hunt for a home. Enter Jane, Sam's estranged mom, who's more than willing to put the couple up in her lavish digs. Jane is a successful record producer whose latest charge -- both in the studio and in her bedroom -- is Ian , a brazen, libidinous twenty-something Brit-rocker. As Sam and Alex settle in at Jane's, they gradually lose their straight-and-narrow approach to life and begin to experiment. Alex takes to Ian and Jane, while Sam is wooed by co-worker Sara.This film is a character-study about self-realization.The performances of the actors and actresses involved were worthy of commendation.Frances McDormand is terrific in her new role as record producer,mother,and corrupter of curious girls.While the rest like Bale,Beckinsale and Nivola were outstanding as well.But inspite of its unconventional storyline,the movie will leave people hanging and with a feeling unsatisfied as the movie turns into entertainment instead of providing better explanations about the characters in it except for the fact that they are seduced by the culture of Los Angeles - wherein Laurel Canyon is located and nothing more.

I'm sure those reading this review have read the plot, so there is no need to go into it again. Frances McDormand transforms herself into yet another different character, Jane, than what she has played before, that of a Rock n' Roll producer who liked the 60's and 70's and decided to never leave the lifestyle, and she does it effortlessly and beautifully. That said, her character is a cliché, at best, which probably helped her step into that role. That is one of the problems with this movie. Most of the characters are clichéd caricatures of what we expect to see. In fact, the plot is so clichéd that you know what is going to happen about 10 minutes into the movie. Another problem with this movie is that if the character is not a cliché, it is an unbelievable character. There are two very noticeable and unbelievable deviations from the cliché. One is in Sam (Christian Bale). Sam is Jane's adult son and is the opposite of his mother, having disliked the lifestyle she immersed him in as a boy. He is pretty conservative and has recently graduated from Harvard Medical School. I've yet to see the son of anyone in that lifestyle decide they want to work long hours at a respectable job. Not very believable. But, Bale puts in a fine performance and is very likable and appealing to the audience. In Bale's case, it is not his fault that he is playing an unbelievable character, because he is very believable as a conservative Psych Doc. The problem lies in the writing of what created this character, his history. The second deviation is in Alex (Kate Beckinsale). Alex is Sam's girlfriend who has not only graduated from Harvard Medical, but is currently working on her dissertation. We're supposed to believe that Alex is so naive and has been so protected that once exposed to the lifestyle of Jane and the rock band she is producing, that she loses her inhibitions and ambition that has gotten her this far. Her slouch towards hedonism is brought about, not by Jane, but by her rock band's lead singer, Ian (Alessandro Nivola), who is also Jane's lover. The only problem is that there is no chemistry between Ian and Alex. There are a few witty comments and you can clearly see the actors looking on at each other to show there is an attraction. They don't even try to hide their supposed attraction when Sam is around (also unbelievable). Ian is yet another clichéd character in this mishmash of cliché and unbelievability. See this movie because both Frances McDormand and Christian Bale are masters of their craft and can pull you into any character they possess. But, expect to see them do this in a pathetic story line.

It has taken me years to get around to watching Laurel Canyon, even after having lived in Los Angeles and worked in West Hollywood for a year and a half. There is more about the southern California lifestyle to dislike than can ever be explained in less than 1,000 words, and this movie takes on really just a tiny, tiny part of it, but it paints a picture of show business life clashing with 'normal' life that matches the reality that I experienced there with astonishing accuracy.Of course, a lot of the effect comes from the location shooting. Anyone from Los Angeles will instantly recognize many of the locations, particularly things like the Château Marmont hotel (where, incidentally, Lindsay Lohan lived for months and months in 2006 while she couldn't seem to stop partying enough to find a real apartment) and, more importantly, that charming cafe at the corner of Laurel Canyon and Kirkwood Drive, where I often used to go for coffee.Jim Morisson's house, a few feet away, is sadly overlooked, which is strange since the movie is about the hectic world behind the scenes of the music industry. Christian Bale plays the part of Sam, a young professional, a psychiatrist already tired of his profession and struggling to start a life with his young wife, Alex. Kate Beckinsale is the perfect embodiment of a young bride horrified by the debauchery taking place around her, as she and Sam move into his mother's house to find, to their dismay, that she has not moved out as promised, but is still there recording music with some dirty, stoned musicians. It is truly remarkable how flawlessly Francisc McDormand fits into the role of the aging mother still stuck in a rock star lifestyle. She is truly one of our most versatile actors! While the relationship between Sam and Alex is realistic and convincing enough (especially Sam's dismay at bringing Alex around his mother, and his clearly desperate need not to displease her - note the way he looks at her when he declines his mother's offer of a drink...), but the mother-son relationship is not believable in the slightest.But this, however, is not something that I think the movie is shooting for. This is not a family drama, it's a comparison of different lifestyles, sort of a peek into the craziness of show business life juxtaposed with everyday American society (the educated kind, at least), and how completely different and unmixable they are. Unmixable? Is that a word? Anyway, you get the idea. Water and oil. It's nearly impossible to imagine a smart, well-balanced young man entering his career as a psychiatrist having come from the environment that Jane (McDormand) would have provided him during childhood, but the situational drama that comes from their relationship is revelatory about both lifestyles.The actual neighborhoods and the style of the houses in that part of Hollywood are presented perfectly, thanks in no small part to the location shooting, but it also captures the attitude in many ways as well. I will say that I found the ending to be a bit sudden, but if nothing else, it's one of those movies that makes you think. You may find yourself imagining one lifestyle or the other, and comparing your own thoughts to how the people in the movie were living. It makes you think, and while I found some scenes and situations a little too far of a stretch (Sam's fascination with the darker lifestyle is interesting, but getting involved sexually with her husband's mother? Yeah RIGHT...), it's still an interesting and well-written drama.