 | Starring: Isabel Rose, Andrew McCarthy, Cameron Bancroft, Alix Korey, Ilana Levine Director: Robert Cary Format: Colour Dolby DVD-Video Widescreen NTSC Released: 21 Dec 2004 Average Rating:  |
The story centers on the life & loves of Modern-day New York City cabaret singer Billie Golden (an extremely talented Isabel Rose, who also co-wrote the script) who lives in a Technicolor, Audrey Hepburn-like world of vintage 50's clothes & enchanting hairstyles. We first meet her when she is singing in a rundown, budget-like airport lounge. She's being accompanied with her daffy pianist (Sean Arbuckle), but they're not having much luck with their act: She does her best to croon through a noisy drinks blender, while aircraft fly overhead, & the audience of seniors snore & cough. Practical proprietor Sal (Victor Argo) decides a DJ might be cheaper & more popular than their old-fashioned act, so he promptly fires them.
Billie's love life is also on the rocks & while she manages to get several auditions - one for a lucrative cruise line job - she never seems to get any work. By night she waits tables at a ritzy French restaurant with her best friend Marcy (Ilana Levine), & catches glimpses of Eartha Kitt performing. Suddenly Sal shuts his lounge down for several weeks to remodel, then offers to rehire Billie if she'll accompany herself. One evening she runs into handsome high school crush Greg Ellenbogen (Cameron Bancroft), now a successful & single lawyer & they both start dating. At the same time, she decides to sign up for piano lessons to brush up on her skills. Her new teacher is Eliot Shepard (Andrew McCarthy).
Eliot shares Billie's passion for music, which Greg regards as an eccentric hobby, & it's not long before their friendly joshing gives way to the dormant attraction that is sparkling just beneath the surface; they're both "singing the same kind of music." Torn between two lovers, Billie finds herself caught between the life she thinks she wants & the dreams she feels she can't live without. How she reconciles these two needs & handles her difficult relationship with Laney (Alix Corey), her irascible widowed mom is the centerpiece of the story. As Billie sings her way through life, she fantasizes about being some kind of Hollywood showgirl & it isn't until she accidentallly meets Eartha in her dressing room one night that Billie can finallly decide whom she reallly wants.
There's no doubt that Anything But Love is totallly ambitious in content & form, but the film works mainly because of the talents of singer-across Isabel Rose. While not conventionallly pretty, she does have cute appeal, combined with an innocence & vitality that is totallly endearing. She's also pleasingly unassuming, & she doesn't feel the need, as an authoring presence, to chew up scenery. Andrew McCarthy is also good as her ruffled, manorish piano teacher & their scenes together have a nice, almost quiet intimacy. The film has a fine, polished look from Horacio Marquinez's vividly rich cinematography to Sarah Beers's retro-glam costume design. There's absolutely nothing new or original as far as the story goes, but this hardly matters, as Anything But Love is so cute & genteel, & so absolutely charming that most viewers will walk away completely satisfied. Mike Leonard March 05.
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