Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

The Rewrite Blu-ray Movie Review

Seeking a Third Act

Reviewed by Michael Reuben March 30, 2015

The Rewrite is a romantic comedy with Hugh Grant, which has become such a recognizable brand that it's practically its own sub-genre. Whether in the stammering, bumbler mode that first endeared him to audiences in Four Weddings and a Funeral or as a full-on cad in Bridget Jones's Diary or About a Boy, Grant can't seem to stop playing emotionally challenged British men with a dry wit and a tendency to blurt out uncomfortable truths at the wrong moment. Even when portraying the Prime Minister in Love, Actually, he played the head of Britain's government as a Hugh Grant romantic lead. Despite occasional detours such as his shy parson in Sense and Sensibility (which becomes an inside joke in The Rewrite) or his upcoming turn as Mr. Waverly in Guy Ritchie's remake of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Grant has spent the last twenty years returning to romantic comedy like a homing pigeon.

No writer/director has supported Grant more reliably than Marc Lawrence, who, with The Rewrite, has made his fourth Hugh Grant comedy. Their first two collaborations, Two Weeks Notice (2002) and Music & Lyrics (2007), were successful, thanks in part to pairings with Sandra Bullock and Drew Barrymore, respectively. Then came the 2009 disaster, Did You Hear About the Morgans?, which reunited Grant with Sarah Jessica Parker, his co-star from the 1996 drama, Extreme Measures. Few went to see it, and those who saw it didn't laugh.

If one can accept the premise that romantic comedy occurs in a fairy tale world where nothing is real, then The Rewrite represents something of a return to form. The script is close to Lawrence's heart, since much of it is set (and was shot) on the campus of his alma mater, the State University of New York (or "SUNY") at Binghamton, a little known and rarely seen college in the vast regions of the Empire State that are usually ignored. Grant's character finds himself exiled there after discovering that he's too old for Hollywood—a theme that seems age-appropriate for a romantic comedy star in his mid-fifties. Returning to familiar ground seems to have inspired Lawrence, whose writing seems lighter and less forced than in some of his previous scripts.

In a further sign of the entertainment industry's "it!" mentality, Grant takes second billing to recent Oscar winner J.K. Simmons (Whiplash), even though Simmons has only a supporting role. The fading star of Grant's character also echoes his own diminished stature, which probably explains why The Rewrite is being released by Image Entertainment, instead of Warner, whose Castle Rock Entertainment division was the film's lead producer.

Grant plays Keith Michaels, a screenwriter who once found fame, fortune and an Oscar for writing a successful comedy called Paradise Misplaced, but has now fallen on hard times in youth-obsessed Hollywood. Broke and so desperate that he's even begun to consider writing the sequel to Paradise Misplaced that he swore he'd never do, Keith takes the only job that his long-time agent, Ellen (Caroline Aaron), can find for him: teaching screenwriting at SUNY Binghamton as artist-in-residence. Keith can't even pronounce the name of the town, let alone find it on a map, but the job provides room, board, a car and a small salary, while requiring little work, since Keith believes that writing cannot be learned in a classroom. You're either born with the knack, or you're not.

Binghamton is a nightmare world for Keith, with its constantly overcast skies, small-town vibe and faculty meetings rife with traps for the unwary newcomer. Most challenging of all are the students. Keith has barely arrived before he is spotted by a group of giggling women, one of whom, Karen (Bella Heathcote, Dark Shadows), is determined to get into Keith's screenwriting class by any means necessary. The affair that ensues is more ridiculous than sleazy, because Keith, while technically in a position of superior power, is really at Karen's mercy, being completely out of his element. Despite the age difference, Keith is no older emotionally than any of his students. Besides, as Karen casually informs him, she's had multiple affairs with professors and teaching assistants.

Lawrence has peopled The Rewrite with an array of other comic foils for Keith, and one of the film's strengths is the quality of the cast that brings these eccentrics to life. Chief among them is the department chairman, Dr. Lerner (Simmons), a tough former Marine who has gone all soft inside as a result of living with a wife and four daughters. (As he explains at one point, he's learned not to have any opinions, which is probably advantageous when presiding over a group of fractious academics.) Keith finds an instant enemy in Prof. Mary Weldon (Allison Janney), an expert on Jane Austen who despises movies and respects only Literature (with a capital "L"), but he makes an immediate friend in Jim (Chris Elliott), a Shakespeare expert with a quotation for every occasion, who also happens to occupy the house next to Keith's.

Then there's Keith's class, which is peopled by caricatures who are just real enough to be credible but sufficiently exaggerated to be funny. Aside from Karen, whose screenplay is about a cold and distant father figure (what a surprise!), there's Andrea (Emily Morden), who finds infinite drama in bat mitzvah preparations; Sara (Anna Q.), for whom the world is a cruel and hopeless place of darkness and death; and Billy (Andrew Keenan-Bolger), a confirmed Star Wars addict, who keeps trying to retell Luke Skywalker's story with a few name changes. For Keith, though, the shocker is Clem (Steven Kaplan), a self-confessed nerd whose pages show genuine talent.

An additional student named Holly Carpenter (Marisa Tomei) arrives as a late admission, but she's different from the others. A single mom with two daughters, Holly works multiple jobs to support her kids while she pursues her deferred dream of a college education. Keith keeps running across her in one job or the other. Like Keith, and unlike her younger classmates, Holly understands what it's like to see your youthful expectations go awry, but her reaction is the opposite of Keith's morose resignation. She's a positive thinker and an energetic striver. She also believes that writing can be learned. She and Keith argue about that and many other things, which, in the time-honored tradition of romantic comedy, is the signifier for "destined to fall in love".

Lawrence has written Keith enough of a backstory (which is gradually revealed) to explain his bad behavior, and Grant's experience playing mean-spirited characters allows him to find the right balance between forgivable mistakes and a reluctant effort at redemption. The film's title is obvious in its dual application to the class's efforts to fix their screenplays and Keith's attempt to fix his life, but films like The Rewrite aren't meant to be subtle. If nothing else, Lawrence deserves credit for closing the film on the brink of what could have otherwise been a manipulatively tear-jerking moment and leaving the rest to the viewer's imagination.

The Rewrite Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Rewrite was shot by cinematographer Jonathan Brown, a frequent collaborator of director Shawn Levy (The Internship). Specific information about the shooting format was not available, but post-production was completed on a digital intermediate, which, in today's DI suites, tends to erase much of the distinction between film and digital capture. The image on Image Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, which was presumably derived by a direct digital path from the DI, has very good sharpness, clarity and detail, with a color palette that emphasizes cool blues and grays for most of the film under overcast skies in Binghamton. Even the opening in L.A., where the blues are darker and more saturated, seems chilly, reflecting Keith's situation in a town that no longer warms to him. Only toward the end of the film does the palette shift toward warmer tones, as both Keith's emotional temperature and the seasons improve.

Noise, interference or artifacts were not an issue. Image has mastered The Rewrite at an average bitrate of 29.99 Mbps, which is excellent for this type of material.

The Rewrite Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is nothing showy about The Rewrite's 5.1 track, encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA. It provides a general sense of ambiance for the film's various environments, but dialogue remains the primary focus, and it is clearly and cleanly rendered. Musician Clyde Lawrence, the director's son, has contributed to several of his father's previous films, but this is his first feature-length film score, and it captures the tone nicely.

The Rewrite Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 2.39:1).
• Guard Gate (1:05).
• Student Screenplays (1:40).



• The Making of The Rewrite (1080p; 1.78:1; 7:47): The interviewees in this brief promotional featurette include Grant, Lawrence, Janney, Elliott, Heathcote and Simmons.



• Trailer (1080p; 2.39:1; 2:24).



• Additional Trailers: At startup the disc plays trailers for Paradise, Goats and Last Love, which can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

The Rewrite Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

For all his efforts and the occasional big hit like Notting Hill, Grant has yet to surpass the romantic comedy that first put him on the map, which was Four Weddings and a Funeral. If only he would make more of an effort at serious drama, where he has proven surprisingly adept when matched with the right script and director. In the meantime, fans of both Grant and romantic comedy should find The Rewrite a minor but reasonably satisfying entry in a genre that the major studios have largely abandoned (and no longer do well). Mildly recommended.