A LIFE LESS ORDINARY

From the creators of the ultra-violent and drug-filled TRAINSPOTTING comes a bizarre and ineffective comedy set in America starring rising British star Ewan McGregor and blond waif Cameron Diaz in a movie called A LIFE LESS ORDINARY. The movie is a cross between the recent and limp EXCESS BAGGAGE and a breezy movie from the Golden Age of Hollywood where angels came to earth to help poor humans fall in love. Mixed with bloody violence and some strange sequences, the movie is unique but unsatisfying with regard to morality and to entertainment value.

McGregor plays Robert, an uneducated janitor at a posh corporate skyscraper. In one bad day, he loses his job and his girlfriend. In a fit of rage, he goes to the penthouse office of his employer, Mr. Naville (Ian Holm), and to threaten his boss with a gun if he doesn’t give him his job back. Mr. Naville is having an equally bad day, fighting with his daughter, Celine (Cameron Diaz), over her accidentally shooting their dentist in the head. Celine is so upset with her father that she sides with Robert during the skirmish. Mr. Naville calls security, but Robert flees with the kidnapped Celine in tow.

Robert and Celine end up hiding away in a remote mountain cabin. Not being too bright, Robert must take lessons from Celine on how to properly stage a kidnapping. Meanwhile in heaven, the angel Gabriel tells two other angels, O’Reilly (Holly Hunter) and Jackson (Delroy Lindo), that they must go to earth and influence Robert and Celine to fall in love or else the two angels can never enter heaven again. Reluctantly, the two go to earth and pose as detectives whom Mr. Naville hires to track down and rescue Celine. They meet up with the pair, who are getting along very well, partying in bars and singing karaoke. O’Reilly and Jackson apply lots of pressure and cause distress to the pair, hoping that the adversity will cause the two young people to trust and rely on each other and fall in love. However, when Mr. Naville finds the pair and institutes a different plan, the two would-be lovers are separated, nearly foiling their union.

This movie doesn’t suffer from unattractive leads − both McGregor and Diaz are charming, funny, intelligent, and off beat. Their chemistry isn’t damaged by their on-screen interactions, but rather by the script which has them ambiguously fall in love without giving the audience a clue about their relationship. The movie is also hurt badly by the silly antics of O’Reilly and Jackson. They seem out of place in this movie. They aren’t funny, and some of their humor comes from the premise that they can’t be killed. Hence, there are scenes where they are shot and mangled only to come back with bruises. While such scenes may be excusable in a fantasy that takes some liberties about how heaven operates, the two angels apparently took lessons from John Travolta’s demonic MICHAEL, and so they drink, smoke, swear, and shoot guns, and Hunter’s character even chews tobacco. Therefore, the audience has no motivation to cheer for their stated goal, to return to heaven.

It is even hard to cheer for the goal of McGregor and Diaz to get together romantically. He is dim, and she is bright. He is poor, and she is rich. Insurmountable odds makes good drama, but their relationship is based on rebelling, robbing banks and drinking large amounts of booze at karaoke bars. A LIFE LESS ORDINARY has some clever photography, and a cast and director of some recognition for creativity, but this movie will have a difficult time staying in theaters. Slightly better than EXCESS BAGGAGE if only for its two leads, A LIFE LESS ORDINARY only serves as another entry into these two rising stars’ portfolios.