A struggling singer-songwriter moving to New York
in search of fame finds a cute Aussie boyfriend and a
bar to dance on.
Here's a comment from a theatergoer:
"It was all right. It had a lot of good-looking
people. It could have made it."
Here's a comment from me.
"I made it (through, that is)." Admittedly, this was
not a film that I eagerly awaited screening. Skinny
ladies in tube tops two sizes too tiny spraying an
inebriatedly rambunctious bar crowd with various
spirits just didn't catch my eye on the trailers (go
figure). But if it caught yours, be forewarned these
are relatively minor segments of the film (likewise,
Tyra Banks' part).
Nor is this a film about four women. Rather, one
modest, stage-frightened, but determined girl from
Jersey dominates the production. Can
she make it on her own in the big bad city? Can she
keep her young Mel Gibson? Can she impress her KFC
eating father (John Goodman)?
Aside from pretentiously false modesty, Piper
Perabo does a smashing job with this near-cardboard
character. Adam Garcia also is endearing, with the
Coyote Queen, Maria Bello, pulling down her hard, but
caring role with both fists. Tyra is fine. (Read in
any inflection you prefer).
But the film caricatures the reality of song or
beer selling, the father/daughter relationship and
even performance, be it music or buttocks. Some of
the wet bar dancing is fun (never too sexy), but the
film really only captivates when Violet (Perabo)
plays her music. Unfortunately, that only happens
twice during which the filmmakers insert a
time-passes-by sequence over the music that moves the
picture along with the kind of beat and heart we've
been waiting for. More songs from our leading lady
would have prettied up this coyote. A grittier
realism would have also elevated the tension level -
as is, we never really worry about anyone.
FYI, as explained by the bar owner herself,
"Coyote Ugly" is the term one might use for the less
than appealing appearance of your one-night-stand
laying in bed with you the morning after. "You'd
rather chew off your arm than risk waking him."
Still, I enjoyed Piper Perabo and would like to
see more of her (now, stop, you know what I mean!) in
films to come. Additionally, I did pull out my dusty
six string and bang around on it a while when I got
back from the film ... that's worth more than a
"C."
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