She’s Funny That Way *** (2014, Owen Wilson, Imogen Poots, Jennifer Aniston, Kathryn Hahn, Rhys Ifans, Will Forte) – Movie Review

Peter Bogdanovich’s 2014 screwball comedy She’s Funny That Way proved his last film before his death in January 2022. It stars Owen Wilson, Imogen Poots, Kathryn Hahn, Will Forte, Rhys Ifans, and Jennifer Aniston.

The 74-year Peter Bogdanovich had not directed a movie since The Cat’s Meow in 2011, but here he is back again on his safe ground of screwball romantic comedy and movie references. He shares the screenplay credit with his former wife, Louise Stratten.

Owen Wilson stars as wealthy theatre director Arnold Albertson, under the alias Derek, who offers his call girl Isabella ‘Izzy’ Patterson (Imogen Poots) $30,000 if she promises she will never again have sex for money and he tells her to pursue an acting career.

Then she unexpectedly attends a casting call to act in the new Broadway play he is directing to star alongside his wife Delta (Kathryn Hahn) and her British ex-lover Seth Gilbert (Rhys Ifans) and he is forced to agree very reluctantly to cast her. Mounting chaos ensues.

Jennifer Aniston plays Izzy’s therapist Jane, who is consumed with her own failing relationship with Arnold’s playwright Joshua Fleet (Will Forte), who is also developing a crush on Izzy.

The zany plot is clever and smart stuff as the coincidences continue to mount up, with its complicated love triangle unravelling with amusing twists. It is a good cast and they do well. Wilson is really good, and so is Hahn, with Ifans and old favourite Austin Pendleton as Judge Pendergast both funny.

Poots, replacing Brie Larson, is nice and charming, though slightly over-stretched, partly through her miscasting. It is hard for the very British actress to be convincingly New York, or convincingly call girl. But she is very game for it. Aniston has got to that unrewarding stage of her career where she is playing harridans (though she is fine at it), when 20 years ago she would have had the Poots part and been perfect for it.

If She’s Funny That Way falls short of sparkling, it is the fault of the script, which is not always funny enough, and the direction, which is not always vivacious enough. Old-style screwball romantic comedies are hard to pull off. They were in their 1930s heyday, and they really, really are now.

They are soufflés that have to rise to the occasion. This one is a half-risen soufflé. Now that is not at all bad. It is 90 minutes of amusing, civilised escapist entertainment, where there is no CGI and nobody dies. Now that makes a nice change, doesn’t it?

Incidentally, movie buff Bogdanovich makes much of a fuss about squirrels and nuts, which turns out to be a line nicked from a 1946 film he admires, Cluny Brown, with Charles Boyer and Jennifer Jones. Ever helpful, here is the link to the review.

http://derekwinnert.com/cluny-brown-1946-charles-boyer-jennifer-jones-peter-lawford-richard-haydn-classic-movie-review-2634/

Principal photography started on 11 July 2013 in New York City for 29 days.

Edward Shearmur was hired to write the score, replacing Stephen Endelman, who had already recorded music.

The cast are Owen Wilson as Arnold Albertson, Imogen Poots as Isabella ‘Izzy’ Patterson, Kathryn Hahn as Delta Simmons, Will Forte as Joshua Fleet, Rhys Ifans as Seth Gilbert, Jennifer Aniston as Jane Claremont, Austin Pendleton as Judge Pendergast, George Morfogen as Harold Fleet, Cybill Shepherd as Nettie Patterson, Richard Lewis as Al Patterson, Sydney Lucas as Josie Albertson, Debi Mazar as Vickie, Illeana Douglas as Judy, Jennifer Esposito as Margie, Tovah Feldshuh as Mrs. Miriam Pendergast, Joanna Lumley as Vivian Claremont, John Robinson as Andre, Ahna O’Reilly as Elizabeth, Lucy Punch as a prostitute, Poppy Delevingne as Macy’s woman greeter, and John Tormey as hot dog vendor.

There are also cameo appearances by Tatum O’Neal, Jake Hoffman, Graydon Carter, Quentin Tarantino and Michael Shannon.

Despite all that, it a limited release in the US and was not a hit. It cost $10 million and took $6 million at the box office.

She’s Funny That Way was released in cinemas and on demand in August 2014 and proved Bogdanovich’s last narrative film. He made a final documentary film The Great Buster: A Celebration in 2018.

Peter Bogdanovich died from complications of Parkinson’s disease at his home in Los Angeles on 6 January 2022, aged 82.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

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Peter Bogdanovich (July 30, 1939 – January 6, 2022).