April 30, 2004 | She's a risk-averse,
by-the-book workaholic who over-prepares for every eventuality with
a fanatical attentiveness to detail. He's an easygoing, imperturbable
charmer who appears to be improvising even as he scores upset triumphs.
She is rigorously organized in her wardrobe
selection and workplace environment. He is rumpled and raffish in his
dress and demeanor – and
his cluttered office would require an extreme make-over simply to qualify
as haphazard.
I don't have to tell you that they're made for each other, do I?
Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore are the attractive opposites in Laws
of Attraction , a snappy and sophisticated romantic comedy. And
very much like the characters they portray –- New York divorce attorneys
who drift into a seriocomic mating dance -- they bring out the best
in each other. The movie itself, smoothly directed by Peter Howitt
( Sliding Doors ) from a script by Aline Brosh McKenna and
Robert Harling, is a winning and well-crafted piece of work that never
pushes too hard or stoops too low. Indeed, by contemporary comedy standards,
it's uncommonly restrained, even civilized: a captivating, character-driven
movie made by grown-ups, about grown-ups, for grown-ups.
Audrey Woods (Moore) is a courtroom tactician
who leaves nothing to chance. She doesn't even leave her apartment
in the morning without first checking the Weather Channel forecast.
Daniel Rafferty (Brosnan) is a cagey legal eagle who relies on stealth
and surprise – and, more important,
razor-sharp intelligence that he takes great pains to downplay. He succeeds
more often than not because he exceeds the low expectations that he inspires.
She succeeds every bit as often because she's stressed for success, still
driven after all these years to prove her own worth beyond the long shadow
cast by her glamorous mother (a delicious Frances Fisher, cracking wise
and stealing scenes with saucy aplomb).
They meet as courtroom rivals, dine together
during a wary truce – and,
after a few too many drinks, wind up in his bed. Come morning, she's
greatly distressed. He isn't. It's only a matter of time, he hopes, before
they have another close encounter. And, sure enough, they're drawn together
during a singularly messy break-up. Her client, a self-indulgent rock
star (Michael Sheen), and his client, the rock star's fashion-designer
wife (Parker Posey), have rival claims on an Irish castle. The lawyers
journey to the Emerald Isle to take depositions, get seriously blotto
at a country fair -– and wake up the next day to find wedding rings on
their fingers. How they deal with this marriage of inconvenience propels
the rest of the light, bright plot.
Brosnan, appealingly debonair even while free of James Bondage, and
Moore, clearly enjoying her break from heavily dramatic roles, develop
a potent chemistry in roles that, in an earlier Hollywood era, might
have gone to Gary Grant and Rosalind Russell, or even Katharine Hepburn
and Spencer Tracy. Their sometimes edgy, sometimes antic interplay is
immensely entertaining. And they bring just enough emotional heft to
their characters to give the audience a rooting interest in their happily-ever-aftering.
It wouldn't be fair, or accurate, to describe Laws of Attraction as
a full-blown laugh riot. But it's charming and disarming in myriad ways
that will keep you smiling, and leave you grateful.