Sweet November

It’s remake week at the movies with Sweet November and Down to Earth winning no awards in the originality sweepstakes. Sweet November is at least better than Down to Earth, but that’s mostly because it merely retreads a so-so flop (the 1968 Anthony Newley/Sandy Dennis film of the same name). Probably the worst thing that can be said about it is that it seems unnecessary and contrived — which might also be said of the original. The basic set-up of a lovably kooky young woman who does cute, well-meaning, lovably kooky things — including “helping” straight-laced, uptight men by living with them for a month and changing their lives with her lovable kookiness — is serviceable enough. However, it dates back, in one form or another, to 1930s “screwball” comedy at least — and possibly even to the mainstream of Egyptian civilization. And even if something original could be done with the idea, no one involved with this film came up with it. Nelson Moss (Keanu Reeves) is a self-centered, humorless, lifeless advertising executive who runs afoul of kooky Sara Deever (Charlize Theron) when he tries to get an answer from her during a driver’s license exam — an occurrence that gets her bounced for cheating. Naturally, she decides that her transportation is his duty for the 30 days she has to wait till she can take the exam again. Yes, this is “meeting cute” with a vengeance. Of course, she also opts to subject him to her “treatment,” which circumstances conspire to make him accept. It comes as a surprise to them (if not the viewer) that they fall in love. At this point — as resolutely as night follows day — it transpires that Sara is dying of cancer (which, like contrivance, starts with a “c”), explaining her approach to life. It’s mildly effective, simply because Reeves (who seems to have taken loosening-up exercises, but still isn’t likely to be anyone’s first choice for a charmingly romantic lead) and Theron are engaging enough performers and the dialogue is fairly bright, when it isn’t trying too hard. The major problem with all of this is that the method for turning Nelson Moss into a real human being never goes beyond the trite. Is unwillingly frolicking on the beach with four poodles and Sara to a Barenaked Ladies song on the soundtrack really going to do the trick? The film never quite gets beyond this level of thought. Where it does score, however, is when Sweet November has the savvy to play its cliches straight to the desired expectations of the viewer. The sequence where Nelson throws over the career opportunity of a lifetime with nasty advertising guru Edgar Price (an effective cameo for Frank Langella) works entirely on this basis, and works well — even to affording Nelson exactly the response we most want to hear. There are just enough of these moments in the film to keep it afloat, despite the utterly regressive material and filmmaking style (must every “meaningful” moment involve cueing up the film’s Enya love song?). The production itself has the bonus of being consistently nice to look at with good — and unusual — locations, helping to make the film a pleasant enough experience, even if never a distinguished or especially memorable one.