Back in 2008, I professed myself less than ecstatic at the prospect of “My Own Love Song,” the first English-language effort from “La Vie en Rose” helmer Olivier Dahan, in which Renée Zellweger plays a wheelchair-bound country singer on a road trip with her eccentric best friend Forest Whitaker, in search of her long-lost son. (I believe my exact words may have been: “This could literally be the worst film of all time.”)
The film opens in France next week, and while the trailer (after the cut) suggests I may have been a tad overdramatic, I can wait a very healthy amount of time to see it. I suppose we might be forced to endure a measure of Oscar chatter for Zellweger — “ZOMG it’s the female ‘Crazy Heart!’” — but the film is really looking to make a splash in the Best Original Song category.
The Playlist reports that Bob Dylan (a former Oscar champ for the 2000 “Wonder Boys” cut “Things Have Changed,” in case you forgot) has composed no fewer than 16 original songs for the film. One of them, “Life is Hard,” is performed in the film by Zellweger, and features quite prominently in the trailer.
Even at this early stage, it’s hard to imagine how the Academy’s music branch can resist the combo of Dylan’s stature, a music-oriented film and songs performed on screen. The film has yet to secure a U.S. distributor, but watch this space.
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35 responses to “Zellweger sings Dylan in ‘My Own Love Song’”
I thought it looked pretty awful… until the giant cartoon bird appeared in the background near the end. Oh dear.
Wow, man. You must have been really afraid of this trailer to be positiveley surprised. This looks horribl. Really horrible. But at least it has Dylan. They seem to be very proud of that fact as they advertise him with blinking stars. :D.
haha, not a surprise but there is someone else here named Michael who is not me but I share his opinion of this film 100%. If this gets an oscar push and I am forced to see it just b/c I like to be informed on all the potential (or eventual) oscar nominated films, then I will be really pissed. Crazy Heart was hard enough to sit through as it was and that at least had Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal giving great performances. I really think Renee Zellweger is old news, she’s just not cool anymore and I don’t really think anyone is pining for her to have a comeback. Hopefully the reviews will decimate this film and I won’t have to worry about seeing it later on.
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Guy – you proud bird. How can you not like unintentional comedy?
Wow…that is all.
wheel chairs and stutters is begging for an oscar-that is all
If Forest Whitaker played a stuttering, wheelchair-bound country singer then it would be a much better movie.
“Positively surprised” is an exaggeration, Michael. When your expectations lie somewhere between “August Rush” and the apocalypse, it’s easy to raise them.
But in case I wasn’t clear … this looks awful.
I think this could be some sort of cult classic in years to come.
90% sure it’ll be bad … But the extended trailer is (a little) better. The music will be in Oscar contention, but dare I very tentatively wonder if its best chance at major category representation might come for Madeline Zima in Supporting Actress? …
Always happy to see a film using the songs of Bob Dylan. This is a bad trailer, but who knows? I don’t think ‘Life is Hard’ is an original for this film, though. It’s track 2 on Dylan’s 2009 album Together Through Life. Still, tentatively looking forward to this.
Call this the Blindside Effect but I think this looks rather sweet but yes the premise does scream ‘gimme oscar’.
From the director of LA VIE EN ROSE, one of the worst films of the decade.
How can anyone call La Vie En Rose one of the worst films of the decade?! Even if you hate it, I can’t see how anyone can dismiss the towering central performance.
“MAAAAARCEL!!!!”
While I wouldn’t call La Vie En Rose one of the worst films of the decade, Marion Cotillard definitely gives one of the best performances ever in a bad movie.
According to The Playlist, Dylan composed a large amount of material for the film, and some of it wound up on his album afterwards.
Yeah. How do you screw up makeup work that outstanding? Oh wait, you don’t. How do you screw up a performance that dead-on human? Oh wait, you don’t. Wouldn’t it make sense to tell the story straight ahead? Oh wait, that just WOULDN’T MAKE ANY SENSE.
Guy: OK, thanks – I wasn’t sure about the song’s origin.
How can a premise this bizarre not turn out at least weirdly fascinating?
Well, at least Forest Whitaker looks like he might be fun to watch, at his most over-the-top. I can’t see Zellweger getting awards attention for this, though, judging by the snippets of her performance that we do see.
Any film scored by Bob Dylan, though, is one I’ll have to brave.
Ok, that one is very bad.
But I saw another trailer for this same film (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4KpZQcSZ2Y) in which it looks slightly better.
First…I love how people actually believe that La Vie en Rose and Crazy Heart are good movies…(at least Rose had an Oscar worthy performance in it, Heart was 100% waste of time)
Second…this looks awful…the worst part is the discussion at the beginning, I’ve never seen either of them act so bad before…
Third…what’s with the animation?
This looks like an avant-retarde classic!
I’d easily jump on board the “la vie en rose is one of the worst of the decade” trains and while Cotillard isn’t amongst the worst, I thought she was actually quite bad too.
This movie looks dreadful, and yet hilarious. Agreed that the extended trailer didn’t make it look quite so awful.
Disgusting.
I would actually have to agree with Guy’s initial assessment. It really does look like the worst film ever.
The last time Dylan wrote a new song for a movie (for “North Country”), he refused to let the studio submit it to the Academy. I suppose we can hope that he does the same this time around, so that we can all ignore this (presumed) pile o’ crap.
I smell totally Oscar Nominations and Wins !? for Renee and Forest! Totally Stunning!
And by the Way, Renee Zellweger has such a GREAT voice! Oh my Gosh!
“Things Have Changed” is the best Best Song winner in the past decade.
“I really think Renee Zellweger is old news, she’s just not cool anymore and I don’t really think anyone is pining for her to have a comeback. Hopefully the reviews will decimate this film and I won’t have to worry about seeing it later on.”
Ah, shut up. Pathetic.
The extended trailer is better and makes me want to actually see the movie. Perhaps, I’ll live to regret it.
It’s so unfair to comment so harshly on the marketing of a movie like this, since it’s obviously not a movie that’ll be easy to market. My guess is you either like sentimental movies or you don’t. I tend to; plus, I like the cast, and Dylan. So why wouldn’t I eventually see it? BTW, that second trailer is the longest preview I’ve ever seen!
[…] an Oscar nomination for the two stars. Watch the trailer and see if can grasp the story. If not, In Contention has a beautiful write up about the film. The movie has opened in France but has no distributor […]