Grade: B-

Verdict: Pleasant old-school comedy with a few modern, edgy twists.

Details: Starring Julia Roberts, John Cusack, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Billy Crystal. Directed by Joe Roth. Rated PG-13 for profanity, some crude and sexual humor. One hour, 43 minutes.

Rate it: Write your own review

Review: Julia Roberts opens her mouth and lets out a tell-tale sign in her new romantic comedy “America's Sweethearts.” It's the horsey laugh.

That endearing cackle, first loosed when Richard Gere jokingly snapped shut a jewelry case in “Pretty Woman,” has become one of Roberts' trademarks. And it usually signals hundreds of millions at the box office.

Like “Pretty Woman” ($463.4 million worldwide), “My Best Friend's Wedding” ($286.9 million) and “Notting Hill” ($354.9 million), “America's Sweethearts” is one of those bankable, slightly edgy romantic comedies.

An homage of sorts to classic screwball comedies, it's a wild tale about male-female break-ups and hook-ups, sugar-coated movies and salty-teared, overpampered movie stars, high-anxiety antics and low-brow penis jokes.

Roberts even gets to wear a fat suit. And there's a heap of top-flight talent joining her onscreen, including John Cusack, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Billy Crystal (who co-wrote the script and co-produced), Christopher Walken, Stanley Tucci, Hank Azaria, Alan Arkin and Seth Green.

That the film's frequently funny scenes don't always flow together as smoothly as you'd like simply doesn't matter. It's still a perfectly pleasant time at the movies. Less inspired than “Meet the Parents.” Riskier than “Legally Blonde.”

Cusack and Zeta-Jones play Hollywood's supreme movie couple Eddie and Gwen, megastars in the midst of a marital implosion. Crystal's the public relations manager who has to sell their latest flick to the press at a plush hotel over one weekend. Walken's the long-haired, reclusive director who's refusing to let anyone see Eddie and Gwen's latest, uh, masterpiece until the press junket premiere (here's the kind of whacked out filmmaker he is: he's bought the Unabomber's mountain shack, rebuilt it plank by plank on his mansion grounds and is holed up inside editing and re-editing his movie).

And Roberts? She's dear, sweet, darling Kiki, Gwen's formerly overweight sister and the diva actress' personal assistant. Like “Get me this, Kiki” and “Get me that, Kiki” and “You were more fun when you were fat, Kiki.”

It will surprise no one that Roberts' Kiki has an unrequited “thing” for Eddie, the now hangdog of a jilted husband desperately wanting to patch things up with his cheating spouse. And that, my friends, is the heart of the movie's convoluted tale.

These two winding up together is a foregone conclusion. Getting there is the fun.

Ever the veteran of a movie like this, Roberts smiles. She laughs. She smiles again. But she also infuses the flick with a couple of fresh Roberts moments. All fatted up in that fat suit for flashback scenes (she's supposed to appear 60 pounds heavier), she seems to relish the poundage. Plus, in one of the movie's best scenes, she's stuffing pancakes and sausages into her mouth while expressing to Crystal the frustrations of loving a man too stupid to love her back.

Cusack, Zeta-Jones and the rest of the cast provide pure professional support. Cusack, especially adept at playing guys on the verge of a nervous breakdown, secures his role with solid physical comedy. Zeta-Jones, remarkable in the drama “Traffic,” acts just stuck up enough to pull off the overbearing Gwen (steel yourself for fans of this film to soon be imitating Zeta-Jones' obnoxious coos of “Kiki, Kiki, Kiki”).

If there is a noticeable problem, it's that the film is a series of starts and stops. The comedy never gets on a heady roll and just goes. And while the film is nicely grounded in that hotel for a weekend press junket, a few of the real-life entertainment interviewers appearing in the movie simply get in the way. Joe Roth (the former Disney honcho re-taking directorial reigns after 10 years) inserts a lineup of real-life press members in reaction shots during “interviews.” What may seem like a neat inside-joke actually makes the flick feel disjointed. Mass audiences may wonder, “Who are these people?”

What's never in question is who's the star.

“America's Sweethearts” may look like an ensemble comedy. The title may even refer to Cusack and Zeta-Jones' characters. But the movie is built completely around its Oscar-winning actress.

Julia Roberts may have surprised a few people with her dramatic turn in “Erin Brockovich.” She may have even tip-toed farther into new territory with the run-and-gun comedy “The Mexican.”

But in this latest film, she's gone back to the garden. There is only one sweetheart in “America's Sweethearts.” Somebody cue the horsey laugh.

— Bob Longino, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution