Film review: She’s Funny That Way, Peter Bogdanovich’s screwball comedy
The director's first film in 13 years, this story of a married theatre director with a penchant for call girls is told in brisk, breezy style and executed with panache
Some 13 years since his last feature film, The Cat’s Meow, Peter Bogdanovich returns with a fast-breaking screwball comedy reminiscent of his early works What’s Up, Doc? and They All Laughed. Originally titled “Squirrels to the Nuts” – a direct quote from genre maestro Ernst Lubitsch’s Cluny Brown – it sees Owen Wilson play Arnold Albertson, a married theatre director mounting his latest New York production.
Arnold is prone to offering call-girls cash windfalls to start a new life, and when he meets his latest lady of the night, aspiring actress Izzy (Imogen Poots), he proposes to give her US$30,000. But that’s just the beginning of an increasingly frantic maze of a story involving an elderly judge, rival actors, a playwright and even an indiscreet psychologist, played with unabashed relish by Jennifer Aniston.
Co-written by Bogdanovich with his ex-wife Louise Stratten – it was originally meant for the late John Ritter to star – the story is brisk, breezy and executed with panache. Bar one gag about a tampon, the script doesn’t resort to contemporary Hollywood’s baser instincts. Wilson is an amiable lead, while British actress Poots handles her role with consummate conviction.
