The Muse (1999)

I am not a great fan of Sharon Stone (or Albert Brooks either for that matter). But this movie is her best and this is the one for which she should have gotten an Oscar, instead of her supporting (at best) role in Casino.

This movie shows a completely different side of Ms. Stone, as a comedienne, and generates a hearty welcome from the hard-core, cold, aloof, sometimes promiscuous characters she usually plays. THE MUSE is a truely great comedy and it is made so by Ms. Stone, not Albert Brooks. It is also a great thing to see a comedy not based on romance or some other trite concept for comedy. It is great satire on the bourgeois commnunity in Hollywood.

Fmovies: A blocked screenwriter who depends of a neurotic source of inspiration is the perfect plot for this comedy. This is a comedy that requires brains to catch the subtleties of its humor and some knowledge of how Hollywood works to recognize when what seem absurd is actually factual. That explains the reviews that some poor souls have written here.

The movie is great, if your brain qualifies... enjoy.

I often think of Albert Brooks as a genius of the "common movie." His films are comedies and they have the feel of your regular, standard comedy but they are so much more. 'The Muse,' a film of his several years ago, was not met with critical or commercial success. As a result, I avoided the film and did not watch until now. I am sad I waited so long.

Brooks stars as an aging Hollywood screenwriter without an Oscar to his credit, just a nomination years ago. His current problem (because you have the feeling with any Brooks movie that his character ALWAYS has a problem) is that he cannot get his recent script made. The studio feels he has "lost his edge," a phrase that follows him from person to person as he attempts to make since of this tragedy.

Brooks visits a friend played by Jeff Bridges who is far more successful than he. Bridges tells him about a woman he sees who inspires his greatest work. The muse, as she is called, is played with great vibrant energy by Sharon Stone. One problem with the muse: she has an expensive appetite - and not just for food. The phrase "high maintenance" brings on all new meaning and each scene is funnier than the next. She needs certain foods in her refrigerator, an expensive bedroom, different paint on the walls, then all new paint over that because it's too bright.

Some of this may seem tired and overused. Albert Brooks, though, is a genius when it comes to movies like this. Take, for instance, a scene when Brooks is caught in a conversation with someone who does not speak the best English. This is a ploy we've seen so many times. In an Albert Brooks movie the timing is perfect and the dialog is pierced with humor. I believe it ends up being the single most funny scene in the film.

Critics talk about the "payoff" to a film. The payoff to 'The Muse' is not entirely genuine and does not live up to the rest of the film. This brings it down a little but not near enough to make the film a retread of other films. It is never boring or overdone or even underdone. Ignore what you may have heard, give 'The Muse' a chance. It may re-enlighten your interest in the common film. ***1/2 out of ****

The Muse fmovies. I have just discovered Albert Brooks, with his film The Muse. I can see why he is known as a West Coast Woody Allen.

The Muse is both elegantly witty and laugh-out-loud funny by turns.

The notion of a nearly-man so desperate for success that he is willing to suspend all reason, and believe that he can be rescued from his imminent Hollywood screen-writing oblivion by a woman claiming to be the Muse of Greek Mythology made real in flesh and blood, but who turns out to be only a particularly resourceful runaway from the local (shall we say) Home for the Oddly Gifted, is sublime! Sharon Stone s performance as the self- and omni-delusive (her psychiatrists, though amazed and amused, know otherwise!) Muse is outstanding. She effortlessly obliterates the wooden acting of the strangely-featured Andy McDowell throughout.

As madly demanding actress - for that IS what she is doing in reality - and - in the final payoff - harridan Studio head she is just superb, and through her the film s high concept is perfectly - and delightfully - pitched.

I cannot speak highly enough of this team of Brooks and Stone.

It would appear Albert and his writing partner (RIP) have a knack of producing original, freshly entertaining gems that are a joy to engage over and over again. Well done! The main protagonists were superb; Sharon Stone as the eccentric, lovely but spoiled Muse, Andie MacDowell as the temporarily frustrated but soon self-actualized spouse, Jeff Bridges as the successful screen writer who is challenged simply to get a tennis ball over a net but who hooks Albert's character up with the Muse, and of course angst filled Albert's character who teeters on the edge of disaster but somehow pulls it together with some help from the Muse cum studio executive. It's a lovely movie, good clean fun designed to provide escape from our own angst filled existences! Thank you Albert!

"The Muse" from 1999 is an Albert Brooks film, starring Brooks, Sharon Stone, Andie MacDowell, Bradley Whitford, Mark Feuerstein, Jeff Bridges, and cameos by the likes of Wolfgang Puck, Rob Reiner, Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, Jennifer Tilly, Lorenzo Lamas, and others.

Brooks plays Steven Phillips, a Hollywood screenwriter who has written 17 films. When he goes to a meeting at Paramount, where he has a deal, he's basically told that they want him off the lot by 5 p.m., his deal is cancelled, he's lost his "edge", and his script is terrible. And by the way, so were the last couple of films.

Discouraged, and at his wife's (MacDowell's) suggestion, he goes and talks to his best friend Jack (Jeff Bridges) who explains that he used the services of a Muse, Sarah Little (Stone) for inspiration. He calls her for Steven and Steven rushes to see her.

Well, this Muse is an earthly pain in the you know what. Anyone who goes to see her has to bring a gift from Tiffany. She wants to be put up at the Four Seasons, have a limo at her disposal, and health foods purchased for her. She spends perhaps five minutes with Steven, who does get an idea for a script. Meanwhile, unable to sleep, she's moved into the guest house/office on his property. She's also turned his wife into the second Mrs. Fields by encouraging her to market her cookies.

Very funny comedy with the hapless Brooks nearly driven out of his mind by this woman. And the film has a delightful twist.

Someone mentioned the party Wolfgang Puck throws for Steven's wife (Puck is serving her cookies). Steven gets into a conversation with a man who can't understand English and misinterprets everything he says. It is hilarious.

This isn't considered Brooks' best, but given for what passes for comedy today, it's practically Pulitzer Prize material. Well worth seeing.