Ligia and I went to see Music and Lyrics (2007) tonight, and we loved it. It’s a love story told in a funny, endearing, modern way. The characters are believable, the movie enjoyable, and the message uplifting.

In a nutshell, 80s has-been pop star Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) is offered the chance to write a hit song for Cora Corman, a rising modern pop star. The problem is he’s got to do it in 36 hours. Desperate, he looks around for help and finds Sophie, his plant-watering girl (Drew Barrymore), has an unexpected talent with words and rhymes. After much coaxing, he convinces her to help him write the song, and they find out they get along great. As a matter of fact, they fall in love. But when Cora wants to change the song to suit her pathetic tastes, Alex (Hugh) and Sophie (Drew) clash and separate. They’re brought back together in a most wonderful way in the end. I don’t want to spoil it for you, so I won’t tell you how.

We found ourselves laughing out loud throughout the movie. We loved the 80s jokes. I in particular got a kick out of the name of Alex’s band, “Pop!” — that’s because my last name is Pop. I can’t really help it — every time pop music is mentioned somewhere, a subtle smirk finds its way to my face. As long as I’m talking about the music, the songs in the movie were great! Those tunes are now stuck in my head and Ligia and I determined the only way to get them out is to buy the album.

We also enjoyed the not so subtle skewering of brainless celebs and new age fads. I want to congratulate the writers and the director of this movie for their witty take on this plague. Generally speaking, instead of a meaningless parade of “religious” superficiality, I’d like to see more sincerity and less show when it comes to religion of any kind in show business. Whatever the various religions of these actors and singers are, I’d like to see changes in their lives, not outward masks and clueless mimicry. I’d like to see them stop forcing their religion on the people they work with, and instead focus on fixing themselves.

On the whole, this is a great movie, and I highly recommend seeing it. It’s enjoyable, funny, worthwhile and uplifting.