Romance and Cigarettes (2005)

I saw this movie at the Toronto film festival, 2005.....

The previous reviewer was absolutely correct - it was a very different type of movie from the usual.

A star-studded vehicle wherein the characters burst into song spontaneously at appropriate intervals - it engages the audience immediately since all of the songs are most recognizable. In essence, you've attended a super movie and participated in the unfolding story as well.

The musical aspects are a "master stroke." There is an underlying drama depicting the difficulties of relationships, family and everyday life and in no way is the story shortchanged by the use of the music.

There are many laughs and alternately serious moments and yet somehow the sum of the parts work to make an enjoyable and satisfying whole.

My understanding is the movie has been caught in merger "limbo" delaying the U.S. release and it's a terrible, terrible shame.

John Turturro is to be commended for his original screenplay and his directorial gifts.

Release this movie to the U.S. Moviegoig Public..........you won't regret it!

Fmovies: When I first heard about this film, I knew that I would love it. I knew that it would have quirky dialogue and stilted situations and yet be fantastically fantastic, not to mention the dream cast. The thing that closed the deal for me was finding out that one of Susan Sarandon's songs would be "Piece of My Heart." When I heard that, I knew that I NEEDED to see this film.

I was not let down in the slightest.

I love how it takes something we all do at any given time (seek solace in singing a song that portrays how we're feeling) and makes a movie around it. The cast is simply to die for. They're all amazing, though we could have used more Mary-Louise Parker and Eddie Izzard, and it's a perfect film for all of them.

Love it...absolutely love it.

Just saw this film about a week ago in Los Angeles with a friend who desperately wanted to catch it, primarily because of the great cast. I'd heard a bit about it previously, mostly negative reviews from the professional critics, but I thought I'd give it a go, primarily for Susan Sarandon. After about the first half-hour, I had a few solid impressions: (1) the sing-alongs mostly didn't work and were sometimes just annoying; (2) the editing went from fair to non-existent, with scenes just vanishing; (3) most of the actors were wasted -- more like cameo appearances than roles (did Elaine Stritch just happen to be in the neighborhood?); (4) the choreography apparently was supposed to be unstylish and clunky, but it often was just distracting. While watching the final credits, I saw the 2005 copyright date and assumed that the studio thought the film too poor for release, and my friend agree--after saying that it was one of the worst movies he'd ever seen.

If you want to see singing and dancing noir, stick with Potter's THE SINGING DETECTIVE or the underrated Martin-Peters flick PENNIES FROM HEAVEN.

Romance and Cigarettes fmovies. This is funny in a way that American movies usually aren't. Gandolfini is playing a character extremely far away from all Soprano stuff. But he's a hero.

He's cheating on his wife in a way which isn't glamorous, just rather cheap and rather human. Susan Sarandon as the wife is really funny through all her love-hate. This family is dysfunctional, but in a way that's impossible not to like.

And it really is a musical. Sometimes. The characters burst out, miming to hit songs. That's show stoppers, but in the good sense of the word. It's all worth seeing.

John Tuturro is nothing else if not original, and his second film as writer/director is nothing if not a swift kick in the nuts to the sheen of movie musical. It's fresh and original and, when at its best, extremely and surprisingly funny. Tuturro casts very well for a story that's like a half-baked fever-dream of blue collar malaise (think the Honeymooners meets French New-Wave art film): Gandolfini plays Nick Murder, a man who loves his wife Kitty (Sarandon), but can't seem to lay off the women on the side - the one she's now with, Tula (cockney-voiced Winslet) - is a fiery redhead. Right at the start there's an argument and a near fight, and the rest of the film becomes a rumination and celebration of love and lust and other crazy things involved with the human heart, leading up to redemption.

There's a certain quality to Romance and Cigarettes that marks it as a pop-marked must-see, a picture with terrific songs (ranging from Joplin to James Brown to Elvis to Cindi Lauper), and some terrific numbers to go along with them. There's an exuberance that Tuturro reaches for that he achieves like few who've made musicals in the past several years; his actors, however much they do or don't seem to be singing with the songs playing on during the numbers, are into the groove, the abstract/surreal quality that at times makes it like a whacked out extended dream sequence on the Sopranos (Buscemi and Tuturro sister Aida were also on the show, the latter here as Gandolfini's daughter as opposed to his sister on the show). There is so much that does entertain that it becomes a shame when it starts to dawn on one that a) the film has a shallow center to it, as we know nothing much about Nick and Kitty's marriage aside from the spoken words of "we were in love, then, not", and then leading into b) an unnecessarily bleak ending, where the possible reigns of the high spirits are replaced by a kind of screeching-halt aesthetic, albeit with the most organically sung (i.e. out of the scene itself not as a NUMBER) song in the film.

But for fans of film in general it's a scatter-shot treat that provides the kinds of joy that the usual Hollywood grind wont provide. Top of the pops belong to Christopher Walken, who has a strange accent (black guy or slight southern-touch as Cousin Bo?) pulls off his funniest in a song since the Weapon of Choice music video, and just whenever on screen has one either smiling or laughing hysterically. Winslet is also astoundingly good here in a part that requires her to be tart-tongued but not a floozy, sophisticated in a manner of speaking even if the 'girl on the side'. She gives it her all, which also goes (mostly) for the main middle-aged stars. Sometimes you do wish you could just hear the actors belt out the songs themselves without the background tuning up as if it's like a demented karaoke out of the New York/New Jersey blue collar world. But when they do connect, it's a lot of fun. Same goes for the movie itself- a very admirable first time out, if almost too ambitious for the nature of the script.

Good music, well-choreographed dancing, quirky sense of humor, a little dark. A bunch of good actors are giving a solid performance. They appear to have enjoyed themselves. Susan Sarandon is great, Kate Winslet deliciously foul-mouthed. The photography is mostly very aesthetic, although of course not as perfect as that of the Coen brothers, who produced the movie. The movie fits well into the universe of the Coen brothers' work while having its own special character. Good job, John Turturro, a very enjoyable movie! I wasn't aware of Turturro as a director. IMDb shows he has made two earlier movies, in 1992 and 1998 (both as a director and a writer, just as with this present movie). Those movies had low scores. After Romance & Cigarettes I will be keeping my eyes open for this new director. As the title suggests, there is a lot of smoking in this movie, but it can hardly be seen as positive advertising for the tobacco industry, fortunately. Conservative Christians had better avoid this movie, it would only upset them. An 8 out of 10.