Life Or Something Like It

"Live every day as if it was your last" is the none-too-original moral of Life Or Something Like It, an insipid romantic-comedy/drama that casts Angelina Jolie as a post-feminist Marilyn Monroe who discovers the drawbacks of blonde ambition and the virtues of true love. Jolie's rising star power will be put to the test by this, her first major comedy outing. The young men who made Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Gone In 60 Seconds worldwide hits aren't likely to embrace Life' with any enthusiasm (although Jolie's presence will certainly make the film a more attractive date-night alternative for male ticket buyers). Instead, Regency Enterprises and distributor Fox will have to rely mainly on post-teen women to drive the box office when it opens in the US on Apr 26. The result will probably be no better than a mid-level performance in its home territory, followed by a spotty showing internationally.

With her big hair and bust-enhancing costumes, Jolie's Seattle TV newswoman Lanie Kerrigan dominates the screen as well as the story. Engaged to a star baseball player and up for a big-time network job in New York, self-satisfied control freak Lanie thinks her life is just about perfect. Until, that is, she encounters homeless street preacher Prophet Jack (Shalhoub, from The Man Who Wasn't There), who predicts, among other things, that her life will end in a week's time. The prediction sends Lanie on a one-week journey of self-discovery, a journey on which she is accompanied only by her grungy cameraman and estranged former lover Pete (Burns).

The script - by John Scott Shepherd (Joe Somebody) and Dana Stevens (whose previous credits include 1998 romantic hit City of Angels) - manages to sell its central plot contrivance by having Prophet Jack's other, more mundane, predictions come startlingly true. But having set the plot in motion, the film puts Lanie's strengthening belief that her time is almost up to fairly predictable dramatic use: she gives up her diet, dumps her shallow fiancee and takes the time to see - thanks to the appearance of his previously secret son - the cuddly side of the otherwise prickly Pete. The only unexpected moment comes when Lanie confronts her mentor, veteran newswoman Deborah Connors (Channing), about the latter's decision to choose career over romance.

The film's comic elements are equally weak. The script provides Lanie and Pete with only a handful of wittily antagonistic lines and, though he handles the dramatic moments with some skill, director Stephen Herek (Rock Star, the live-action 101 Dalmatians) shows no great aptitude for staging romantic-comedy banter. The film's only memorable comic set piece - in which Lanie leads a crowd of striking bus drivers in a live on-air rendition of I Can't Get No Satisfaction - falls disappointingly flat.

Jolie's Monroe-with-an-attitude impression is certainly eye-catching but it sits awkwardly in the film's contemporary context. The material also gives her little chance to prove that she can handle comedy as well as action, as she did in her Oscar-winning performance in Girl, Interrupted.

Paradoxically, Jolie might have had more chance to show her comic potential if the film had made greater use of its more experienced cast members. However Burns - who, with Sidewalks of New York, She's The One and other projects, has made hip romantic comedy his speciality - is a subdued second fiddle here and the reliable Shalhoub is used only to drive the plot. Channing's role, and the experienced actress' knack for understated comedy, might have given the film an interesting extra dimension, but it ends up as essentially a single-scene performance.

Prod cos: Regency Enterprises, Davis Entertainment/New Regency
Dist: 20th Century Fox (exc I, Switz, S Korea)
Prods: Arnon Milchan, John Davis, Chi-Li Wong, Toby Jaffe
Exec prods: Ric Kidney, Ken Atchity, Teddy Zee
Scr: John Scott Shepherd, Dana Stevens
Cinematography: Stephen Burum
Prod des: Bill Groom
Ed: Trudy Ship
Music: David Newman
Main cast: Angelina Jolie, Edward Burns, Tony Shalhoub, Stockard Channing