Hollywood success can be very short-lived. Imagine your debut screen appearance being in a hit so massive that would make you into international pop culture phenomenon only for your next film to turn into box office and critical flop so monstrous that would spark creation of Golden Raspberry Awards. This happened to Olivia Newton-John when she starred in Xanadu, 1980 musical directed by Robert Greenwald.
The plot takes place in Los Angeles where struggling artist Sonny Malone (played by Michael Beck) is forced to swallow his pride, abandon artistic ideals and reluctantly return to music studio where he worked on album covers. One day, while rollerskating, he meets beautiful and mysterious Kira (played by Olivia Newton-John) who begins to inspire his work. He also meets and befriend Danny McGuire (played by Gene Kelly), rich construction entrepreneur who used to be big band musician in 1940s and took inspiration in a mysterious singer that looked exactly like Kira. Danny and Sonny decide to become partners and develop abandoned building into a night club called Xanadu, where they would match 1940s aesthetics with disco and even have roller rink. Sonny finds out that Kira is actually a muse sent by Zeus and other Olympian gods to inspire him to build Xanadu and that her time on Earth is limited, much to displeasure of Sonny who fell in love with her.
Time was kind to Xanadu and today it enjoys relatively good reputation among viewers who that feel nostalgia towards the era of disco, and those who appreciate campy aesthetics. But, you shouldn’t make mistake and not think about Xanadu as a bad film. Olivia Newton-John looks lovely, she can pass as divine character from Greek mythology, she can sing and competently dance, but her acting talent leaves too much to desire. This is especially so in the scenes featuring her partner Michael Beck, with whom she had zero chemistry and who was terribly miscast in this film. Gene Kelly, veteran of Classic Hollywood musicals, on the other hand, is on much higher level and the idea of restarting his career in this type of films at the age of 68 wasn’t bad. His talents, however, couldn’t compensate for the inept direction of Robert Greenwald, leftist film maker who made many politically charged dramas and documentaries, but musicals definitely weren’t his forte. He tries and fails in different styles (including small animation sequence directed by Don Bluth) and applies special effects that looked dated even in early 1980s. Script by Richard Christian Danus and Marc Reid Rubel, allegedly improvised on the set, wasn’t any better. The music, the most important ingredient for this kind of films, is passable but hardly memorable, although Olivia Newton-John’s song “Magic”, unlike the film, became great hit. Probably the only music and dance number that works is spectacular finale that feature a lot of disco roller skating combined with different musical styles and costumes, but it could have worked better as single music video or part of conceptual album. Xanadu practically ended Olivia Newton-John’s acting career, but she maintained reputation of global pop star and also married Matt Latanzi, one of the dancers featuring in this film. Producer Joel Silver, on the other hand, learned from his mistakes and later became one of the most successful makers of action films. So, even massive failures might, in the end, provide happy end for those participating in them.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
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