Down With Love (2003) Review
By Gina-Marie Lobaito
Renee Zellweger as Barbara Novak in Down With Love (2003).
“I got you. I got Barbara ‘Down with Love’ Novak to fall in love.”
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A rare kitschy, self-aware sex comedy made during the booming era of movies like 13 Going on 30 and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Down with Love does not take itself seriously.
Barbara Novak (Renee Zellweger) wants women to act like men. To be able to have meaningless sex without strings. Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor) will throw himself at anyone who gives him the time of day, yet it's his mission to charm Novak into falling in love with him and to take down her empire.
Evan McGregor as Catcher Block and Renee Zellweger as Barbara Novak in Down With Love (2003).
Set in 1962, the wardrobe and cinematography honors the movies before that made it possible. Checkered patterns, split phone calls, the outfit reveal scenes, and more. Stylized like Breakfast at Tiffany’s or West Side Story, Down with Love feels like a movie made during the era it parodies.
The costuming in Down With Love is a standout aspect of the film.
The self-awareness of the movie ties it all together. Over thirty mentions of the title itself, twists after twists, and woman after woman, Down with Love never holds itself to a high standard. It presents itself as it is, a parody of both the 60s and 00s rom-com movement.
Evan McGregor as Catcher Block and Renee Zellweger as Barbara Novak in Down With Love (2003).
Barbara is a bubble-headed feminist. Catcher is a womanizer who isn’t smart enough to maintain his fake accent for 10 seconds. Down with Love knows it is a parody of itself while remaining a well-written romance. You’re rooting for the two, without knowing how their story is going to end.
Using cliché’s and tropes way overused in cinema: the ugly duckling to swan, the man who can’t love falls in love, their best friends’ sidelined romance, Down with Love is both a love-letter to the 60s and a hate letter to the typical rom-com while remaining a stable story.
