For much of 1990s Julia Roberts used to be the queen of Hollywood romantic comedies, but later in the decade she had to fight for that title with Meg Ryan and Sandra Bullock. Reason for that can be found in sometimes questionable choice of projects in which she starred. An example can be found in Something to Talk About, 1995 film directed by Lasse Halström.
In this film Roberts plays Grace King Bichon, woman who had dreamed about becoming a vet only to become ordinary housewife after marrying Edward “Eddie” Bichon (played by Dennis Quaid). She isn’t disappointed much, because she has what appears to be good marriage and lovely daughter Caroline “Doodlebug” (played by Haley Aull). This idyllic kind of life shatters when she learns that Eddie was unfaithful to her. She confronts him in very public and scandalous way and takes away Caroline to her parents before ultimately deciding what to do about marriage. While her feminist sister Emma Rae (played by Kyra Sedgwick) urges her to divorce Eddie, her father, old and stubborn horse breeder Willy King (played by Robert Duvall) insists that she returns to her husband, partly because he share business interests with Eddie and his family.
Something to Talk About had more than decent box office results, but critics lacked enthusiasm and today this film is considered one of the lesser and more obscure works in Roberts’ filmography. Main reason for that can be found in the film being advertised as light-hearted romantic comedy while actually being quite serious and, at times, rather dark drama. This is due to script by Callie Thorne, writer best known as the author of Thelma & Louise. While this film has very strong feminist bent, there is less violence. Swedish director Lasse Halström, who had some solid and interesting films after relocating to Hollywood, does rather unremarkable job with the material. Same can be said of Roberts who was apparently miscast and had trouble discarding her bubbly and charming screen persona in order to play serious dramatic role. The rest of the cast, despite having some very respected names in it, doesn’t fare much better and simply fails to make their characters likeable. Thorne’s script is filled with annoying cliches and, in order to make it more interesting, subplot dealing with equestrian competition is added. All that segment does is, sadly, to add another set of cliches, this time from Hollywood sports dramas. Something to Talk About ends as complete disappointment that could be recommended only as curiosity for cinephiles interested in depiction of exotic sports, while the rest of the audience should invest time in something better,
RATING: 2/10 (-)
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