A Life Less Ordinary
with Ewan McGregor, Cameron Diaz, Delroy Lindo, Holly Hunter
Written by John Hodge
Directed by Danny Boyle
by Scott Hefflon
Critics gave A Life Less Ordinary a lot of shit when it came out for being too hip, too contrived and convoluted a love story-with-angelic-intervention, too much of a commercial pandering for the wackos who brought us Shallow Grave and Trainspotting. Most critics should get out a little more. Most of us don’t give a rat’s ass if it makes no sense that daddy big bucks hires a Black dude (Lindo) and a white chick (Hunter), obviously incompetent bounty-hunters (do they have résumés and references?), to bring back his spoiled-rotten-yet-surprisingly-resourceful daughter (Diaz) from the clutches of her fumbling Scottish janitor cum kidnapper (McGregor). Most people watch stupid flicks like this half-drunk or baked after a long day trying not to draw attention to themselves at jobs they don’t care about enough to hate. A Life Less Ordinary is no more outlandish than Gone with the Wind, When Harry Met Sally, or Natural Born Killers to those of us who’ve got bills to pay and think any love story is about as far-fetched as The Princess Bride.
Question is, does the movie entertain? Yes, it does. Sure, Trainspotting was edgier and perhaps a little more useful in its applications in life, but junkies bitched up a storm about how inaccurate the movie was. But junkies don’t write for major papers or have video commentaries on network TV (as far as you know). A Life Less Ordinary makes absolutely no sense, with gratuitous chase sequences, wildly coincidental run-ins, not to mention ambiguous intervention by angels trying to save their jobs. “The Lord moves in mysterious ways” has gotten God-following folk through many a nonsensical situation, so I don’t think it’s much of a stretch for us to not understand this movie. It’s certainly a lot more interesting than filming my stupid ass walking to a 24-hour convenience store in the middle of the night ’cause I just ran out of toilet paper. Who needs more realism?
