Juliet, Naked: NZIFF Review

Juliet, Naked: NZIFF Review

Crowd pleasing in extremis, the adaptation of Nick Hornby's Juliet, Naked is a charming film that leans on its screwball edges more than it should.

Chris O'Dowd, in a sly mix of both humour and pathos, stars as Duncan, a man obsessed with disappeared rocker Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke, looking like a Reality Bites reunion 20 years on). His long-suffering partner Annie (Rose Byrne) is nearing the end of her patience at his obsession which has seen their lives affected and put on hold.

When Duncan receives a hitherto-unknown copy of one of Crowe's beloved albums, Annie posts a less-than effusive review online - and is stunned to be contacted by Crowe himself. As their friendship grows from afar, things begin to change....

Juliet, Naked is your typical spin on the usual Nick Hornby fare - a manchild forced to confront his ways and with music involved, it's the same story, just told differently.

And whilst it has an ending that suddenly appears as if an author's reached his page limit, what Juliet, Naked manages to do is carve a path to mainstream rom-com that's both commendable and comfortable at the same time.

Issues of regret, longed for family, teen obsessions and desires to rectify past mistakes all swirl together in one crowd-friendly mix that never once loses sight of a simple desire to entertain above all else.

Frivolous and flighty, and actually laugh-out-loud funny in places, Juliet, Naked's central trio add much to proceedings, with each capturing an element of the same lost coin; from Duncan's desire to hold true to what mattered when he was young, to Crowe's realisation of life lost, never to be regained to Annie's stuck in this life trajectory, there's much to hit an audience of a certain age.

Certainly, Hawke's never been better - an antithesis to the festival's earlier First Reformed, his Tucker Crowe is an extension of the slacker from Reality Bites, a musician now facing mortality and looking for one more chance even though he doesn't know it.

And while Juliet, Naked's desire to simply amuse and spin a nice romantic comedic yarn usually would be roundly mocked, (and deserves to be thanks to a trite unformed ending), what actually emerges is a rare commitment to mainstream fare, that's both pleasantly watchable and also richly resonant in the sum of its charming parts.