Shortcut to Happiness out this Friday
Our local paper shows Jennifer’s new film (made in 2001) Shortcut to Happiness will be opening here in Des Moines on Friday, July 13. We don’t know what theater yet. But if they are showing it here in fly-over country, they are showing the movie in a theater near where you live. Give it a look and tell us what you think of Jennifer as a devil instead of a ghost whisperer.
Here’s a little information on the film from Box Office Prophets:
Shortcut to Happiness
Release Date: July 13, 2007
Limited release
Once again Hollywood has decided to revisit the classic Faustian tale of a man who makes a pact with the Devil. This time the story features Alec Baldwin as Jabez Stone, a struggling author in contemporary New York City who sells his soul to the Devil for literary success and fame. When he comes to realize the ultimate drawback of his deal he enlists the help of Daniel Webster, played by Anthony Hopkins, to get out of it. To no one’s surprise, the Devil, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, has other plans for Jabez’s soul.
This adaptation of Steven Vincent Benet’s The Devil and Daniel Webster is just one of a number or versions most recently done loosely in the Brendan Fraser vehicle Bedazzled, where Elizabeth Hurley played Mr. Scratch’ Somewhat under-appreciated, it featured a fine, sly, continentally seductive performance by Elizabeth Hurley. I’ll see Shortcut to Happiness, however, just to compare her work against that of the slightly more kittenish quality of Ms. Love Hewitt.
Baldwin, who has shown to be surprisingly adept at comedy in his numerous appearances on Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock, also assumes the responsibilities of director for this movie.
It also features current SNL cast members impressionist/comedian Darrell Hammond and the very funny Amy “No One Knows Who That is, REEGGG!” Poehler. Also in the cast is Jason Lee, who was involved in the divinely themed Kevin Smith film, Dogma. (D. James Ruccio/BOP)
Monday, July 9, 2007
© 2007 Box Office Prophets, a division of One Of Us, Inc.
Well, it seems this release of Shortcut to Happiness turned out to be a very, very limited one. From this story (www.dose.ca/movies/story.html?id=32487f02-dce1-403f-97d0-715a71867f5e&k=77987) we learned the film would only open in Las Vegas, Rochester, Fort Myers, Columbus, Albuquerque and Santa Fe today. Bummer!
What happens next is anybodies guess. If people like it, they might open a wider release in many more cities. Or this limited opening might just be a way to claim the film had a theatrical release and send it straight to video. Your guess is as good as ours.
Guess we'll just have to keep our beady little eyes open.
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Most of the reviews have been predictably bad and some blame JLH for the movie's problems with no explanation of how a 22 year old actress could ruin a movie with so many other big time actors.
We think the problem was probably that Alex Baldwin first try at being a director was not very good and he is trying to bury his mistake or pass it off onto others. We did find this review in the Las Vegas City View by somebody who seemed to have actually seen the movie and who thought Jennifer actually did a good job.
Film Reviews
CityLife Las Vegas
Hell in reels
July 12, 2007
If, by some tragic mischance, you're watching Shortcut To Happiness, a poor excuse for "thoughtful" entertainment, you'll find it hard to ignore Alec Baldwin is suddenly looking younger, more matinée idol-like ... and thinner. That's because this modernized, tonally jumbled version of The Devil and Daniel Webster has been in post-production Purgatory since 2001. There were mutterings of insufficient funds, litigation -- and, to judge from the sex-comedy ad campaign, the cheesy new title and the Bewitched-like credit sequence, this belated release fairly screams "tax write-off!"
Star/director Baldwin can't very well efface his image from the screen (though he might be well advised to), but his director's credit has vanished in favor of the pseudonym Harry Kirkpatrick. Stephen Vincent Benet's classic story has been unconvincingly updated to present-day New York. Baldwin's Jabez Stone is now your clichéd struggling writer, hankering after the approval of über-publisher Webster (Anthony Hopkins), to the point of bartering his soul. Satan, in the lissome form of Jennifer Love Hewitt, is only too happy to take him up. After which we are treated to the usual slacktwaddle about how money and success don't bring happiness, one of swanky Hollywood's favorite maxims for the masses, served up (as usual) without irony.
Director "Kirkpatrick" allows Kim Cattrall -- playing Baldwin's editor by way of Samantha Jones -- to careen out of control. Ditto that unfailing harbinger of cinematic salmonella, fatuous Dan Aykroyd (as a rival scribe). Hewitt, surprisingly, more than holds her own as a Holly Golightly sort of Devil.
Crisp, continent and exceptionally understated, Hopkins makes garden-variety witticisms slice like a straight razor. The film hinges on Webster's final oration and Hopkins' performance deserves saving. But the movie? Straight to perdition with it!
DAVID MCKEE
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