Something To Talk About
1995
Cast: Julia Roberts, Dennis Quaid, Robert Duvall, Gena Rowlands, Kyra Sedgwick
Genre: Comedy-Drama
U.S Box Office Gross: over $50 million
Plot: A woman's world is rocked when she discovers her husband is cheating on her
'But For Kyra Sedgwick and an Admirable Performance by Julia Roberts, There was Little Good To Talk About This Movie'
Remember this film from Julia Roberts's filmography? Thought not, unless you are a massive fan of hers. Something to Talk About was penned by Callie Khouri, who did the successful Thelma & Louise, co-produced by surprisingly enough Goldie Hawn and is a drama about infidelity. Or be it would have been better if the film was centred on Grace & Eddie's characters and the disintegration and obliteration of their marriage and relationship. Unfortunately, the film chickens out and in the end, we get a happy ending one would come to expect in a Julia Roberts rom-com. But it was also an ending that left a distinctly bitter taste in my mouth.
One day, Grace catches Eddie on the side with another woman on the streets. She then leaves with her daughter and stays with her father and mother, as well as her sister. During the course of the film, Grace later discovers the dog in Eddie has slept with numerous women in town, and all of whom she knows.
Kyra Sedgwick as Emma-Rae, Grace's sister was excellent (and who could so easily pass as Julia Roberts's sister), whilst Gena Rowlands was adequate at most - all the female leads were good as a whole, but Robert Duvall and Dennis Quaid give underwhelming performances and this is not helped by their underwritten characters.
Julia Roberts's performance is engaging as ever, she has this screen presence that makes a film, watchable. Well, but for this one. & again, I've said this time & time again but as a terrific actress Julia is, her movie choices, but for several exceptions constantly baffle me because she deserves better and she should be picking better roles. I've never been a staunch fan of Dennis Quaid, as I mentioned in one of my other reviews, and I didn't like his philandering character and I didn't find him redeemable enough, so much so this pathological excuse of a person had been seeing other women whilst he was married to his wife. I also found him repellent, as he struggles with his efforts in getting her back. Quaid was just not the right actor for this role and he and Roberts are mismatched, as they barely show genuine onscreen chemistry. They just did not make a believable couple.
There is that double standard about a man cheating on his wife and of her finding out - only for her to fool around with another guy, which Grace sort of does herself, but it doesn't go very far. And come the moment when she and Eddie reconcile and dance, that hinted somewhat that they did back together, that's when the movie lost several points for me & I truly didn't buy an ounce of it, because I felt Eddie didn't try hard enough to deserve a woman like Grace. And it's not just Eddie who cheated on Grace, but Grace's father on his wife - and like Grace, she took him back. The idea of someone forgiving their cheating hubby just by seeing him ride a horse in an equestrian event is ridiculous. Callie Khouri must take some of the blame for the movie's erroneous script.
The characters, on the whole, are types I, myself, wouldn't choose to hang out with.
I thought Something To Talk About went well and I enjoyed it, but come to the 30th-minute mark, it all went right out of the window and gone downhill with the script becoming weaker and less entertaining and from that moment on, it never won me back.
Summary:
Pros +
- It's nice in places
- The performances by Julia Roberts, Kyra Sedgwick, Gena Rowlands
Cons -
- The Ending
- Dennis Quaid just never convinced me as Eddie & I didn't like the character
- No chemistry between Julia Roberts & Dennis Quaid & I didn't feel their relationship
- Underwhelming, poorly- written male characters
- Terrible message it sends out to the audience, that philandering & infidelity is not a big deal
Final Verdict:
I had reasonable hopes this film would be good because I found the plot interesting and I thought it would go in a direction where the film would be redeemable enough in the end.
Something To Talk About didn't do that. It abjectly failed to do that.
This was a waste of a film and another bad Julia Roberts movie, which I hate to say but if the film had a better ending and that Eddie and Grace didn't get back together, that would have salvaged it for me and I would have enjoyed it slightly more.
But alas, this film just wasn't good enough.
Overall:
1995
Cast: Julia Roberts, Dennis Quaid, Robert Duvall, Gena Rowlands, Kyra Sedgwick
Genre: Comedy-Drama
U.S Box Office Gross: over $50 million
Plot: A woman's world is rocked when she discovers her husband is cheating on her
'But For Kyra Sedgwick and an Admirable Performance by Julia Roberts, There was Little Good To Talk About This Movie'
Remember this film from Julia Roberts's filmography? Thought not, unless you are a massive fan of hers. Something to Talk About was penned by Callie Khouri, who did the successful Thelma & Louise, co-produced by surprisingly enough Goldie Hawn and is a drama about infidelity. Or be it would have been better if the film was centred on Grace & Eddie's characters and the disintegration and obliteration of their marriage and relationship. Unfortunately, the film chickens out and in the end, we get a happy ending one would come to expect in a Julia Roberts rom-com. But it was also an ending that left a distinctly bitter taste in my mouth.
One day, Grace catches Eddie on the side with another woman on the streets. She then leaves with her daughter and stays with her father and mother, as well as her sister. During the course of the film, Grace later discovers the dog in Eddie has slept with numerous women in town, and all of whom she knows.
Kyra Sedgwick as Emma-Rae, Grace's sister was excellent (and who could so easily pass as Julia Roberts's sister), whilst Gena Rowlands was adequate at most - all the female leads were good as a whole, but Robert Duvall and Dennis Quaid give underwhelming performances and this is not helped by their underwritten characters.
Julia Roberts's performance is engaging as ever, she has this screen presence that makes a film, watchable. Well, but for this one. & again, I've said this time & time again but as a terrific actress Julia is, her movie choices, but for several exceptions constantly baffle me because she deserves better and she should be picking better roles. I've never been a staunch fan of Dennis Quaid, as I mentioned in one of my other reviews, and I didn't like his philandering character and I didn't find him redeemable enough, so much so this pathological excuse of a person had been seeing other women whilst he was married to his wife. I also found him repellent, as he struggles with his efforts in getting her back. Quaid was just not the right actor for this role and he and Roberts are mismatched, as they barely show genuine onscreen chemistry. They just did not make a believable couple.
There is that double standard about a man cheating on his wife and of her finding out - only for her to fool around with another guy, which Grace sort of does herself, but it doesn't go very far. And come the moment when she and Eddie reconcile and dance, that hinted somewhat that they did back together, that's when the movie lost several points for me & I truly didn't buy an ounce of it, because I felt Eddie didn't try hard enough to deserve a woman like Grace. And it's not just Eddie who cheated on Grace, but Grace's father on his wife - and like Grace, she took him back. The idea of someone forgiving their cheating hubby just by seeing him ride a horse in an equestrian event is ridiculous. Callie Khouri must take some of the blame for the movie's erroneous script.
The characters, on the whole, are types I, myself, wouldn't choose to hang out with.
I thought Something To Talk About went well and I enjoyed it, but come to the 30th-minute mark, it all went right out of the window and gone downhill with the script becoming weaker and less entertaining and from that moment on, it never won me back.
Summary:
Pros +
- It's nice in places
- The performances by Julia Roberts, Kyra Sedgwick, Gena Rowlands
Cons -
- The Ending
- Dennis Quaid just never convinced me as Eddie & I didn't like the character
- No chemistry between Julia Roberts & Dennis Quaid & I didn't feel their relationship
- Underwhelming, poorly- written male characters
- Terrible message it sends out to the audience, that philandering & infidelity is not a big deal
Final Verdict:
I had reasonable hopes this film would be good because I found the plot interesting and I thought it would go in a direction where the film would be redeemable enough in the end.
Something To Talk About didn't do that. It abjectly failed to do that.
This was a waste of a film and another bad Julia Roberts movie, which I hate to say but if the film had a better ending and that Eddie and Grace didn't get back together, that would have salvaged it for me and I would have enjoyed it slightly more.
But alas, this film just wasn't good enough.
Overall:
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