The Hugh Grant movie Quentin Tarantino absolutely adores: “He does love that film”
For the people that don’t live in Los Angeles, the existence of Quentin Tarantino’s cinema is a rather painful idea; knowing that the director curates the film program each week and projects classic after classic in his own slice of heaven. Despite not being a huge fan of his work myself, I do admire his passion for cinema, and love hearing anyone talk about it with the same reverence and respect that he does.
But when Hugh Grant bumped into the director in London, he was surprised to hear that one of his lesser-known pieces of work was loved by Tarantino, and often shown in his personal cinema.
The recent resurgence of Hugh Grant has been a joy to watch, making some wonderfully surprising choices by playing villainous characters in the recent A24 horror film Heretic, as well as in Paddington 2. After building a name for himself by playing more aloof and harmless characters, such as William Thacker in Notting Hill and an uncharacteristically charming English politician in Love, Grant has expanded his fan base and challenged the stereotypes we associate with his on-screen personas.
Despite having a number of hugely popular films, Tarantino was not struck by any of the classics we associate with Grant and instead gushed about one film from 2007 called Music and Lyrics. Grant explained, “He does love that film. I had this weird experience that some do in London: this sweaty person pushed his way through the crowd to me, and it was Quentin Tarantino. And to my enormous surprise, he said, ‘Oh, man, I love Music and Lyrics.’ He said he watched it on a plane, and was so disappointed that the plane landed before the film ended, that he had to quickly go and order it from Blockbuster or something. And I thought, ‘Surely not, not Quentin Tarantino,’ but maybe you’re right”.
The film was directed by Marc Lawrence (who also worked with Grant on Two Weeks’ Notice and Did You Hear About the Morgans?) and follows a washed-up 80’s pop star who is unexpectedly asked to write a hit song to record with a young singer. However, he hasn’t written a song in years and actually never has, but he is now tasked with doing so in a matter of days.
Drew Barrymore stars alongside Grant as the love interest, with a frankly adorable meet-cute as she is tasked with watering his plants, even though he is able to do so. Grant brings his usual infectious joy and charm to the film, with the two working together on the song and combining their shared quirky characteristics to create a hit pop song. In some ways, it could be seen as a less heavy predecessor to A Star is Born or La La Land, given that their bond ultimately comes from ‘the music’.
The plot doesn’t exactly scream Quentin Tarantino, especially given that no one ends up dead and the women actually have dialogue, but it seems as though the director has a secret soft spot for noughties rom-coms, and honestly, who doesn’t?
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