Rating of
2.5/4
Laurel Canyon (2003)
MovieAddict - wrote on 01/30/12
Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll!
Sam (Christian Bale) and his classmate/ fiancée, Alex (Kate Beckinsale) travel west to spend some time at his mother Frances McDormand 's house in Laurel Canyon (the Hollywood Hills). They're organized and career oriented (Alex is there to write her dissertation on the reproductive qualities of fruit flies and Sam is a newly graduated psychiatrist there to start his internship) while his mom is a successful record producer and who is in the middle of making a record, and having the latest, in what Sam sees as a series of mistakes, affair with the irresistibly charismatic Alessandro Nivola, a British rock star sixteen years younger than her.
The plan is for the couple to spend their first few weeks alone in Jane's luxurious pad but they arrive to find a bunch of musicians with Jane conducting a recording, pot and booze a plenty. Sam gets deeper into his work with fellow psychology resident, a gorgeous Slavic accented Israeli Sara (Natascha McElhone) while Alex finds herself increasingly attracted to his mom's wild lifestyle and begins to hang out in the studio with the band.
I think Christian Bale is a terrific actor but the two who really stick out in this movie for me were Frances McDormand as Jane and Alessandro Nivola as Ian.The ambiguous ending is also excellent, if it had ended any other way you wouldn't have got the chance to think about it would you?
And yeah, the song entitled Shade and Honey by Sparklehorse featured in this movie was sung by Alessandro Nivola. Amazing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omscauTOtqE
