Duets: Movie Review, DVD Review (2000)

Directed by Bruce Paltrow, ritten by John Byrum, 113 minutes, rated R

(Originally published 2000)

At first glance, it might seem curious that a film about music would warble so painfully through its multitude of themes, be so tone deaf to its dozens of situations, and allow its characters to strike such a barrage of false notes, but when one considers that the music in “Duets” is staked on the world of karaoke, well, it all seems downright fitting, doesn’t it?

“Duets,” directed by Bruce Paltrow from a screenplay by John Byrum, follows six people traveling across the country in hopes of winning $5,000 at the national karaoke championships in Omaha. That’s right--Omaha.

Along the way, they stop at small, dingy karaoke bars to hone their “talents,” drink boatloads of booze, swear, have sex, become stars for three minutes and, naturally, to shoot for that evening’s jackpot.

All of this could have been great stuff--a film that examines a ripe slice of Americana--but Paltrow has loaded “Duets” with so many plots and subplots, his film has no shape and--worse--it completely lacks energy.

Without any sense of where to focus his camera or which stories are worth exploring in greater detail, Paltrow, who once had a career working on such television shows as “The White Shadow” and “St. Elsewhere,” loses control of his film almost immediately.

At its best, “Duets” offers a glimpse into a world teeming with troubled, lonely people finding solace at a microphone. At its worst, it’s a mishmash of lives colliding on and off stage, dramas unfolding and melodramas blooming, sentiment for the sake of sentiment. The editing, in particular, is the pits, so disjointed and awful, whatever flow the film could have had--and its doubtful it could have had much with so many stories spinning into the gloom at once--is swept out to the dark stage of despair.

With Huey Lewis as Ricky Dean, a karaoke hustler whose voice happily destroys the competition; Maria Bello as Suzi Loomis, a woman whose talents in the bedroom help get her across the country; and Paul Giamatti giving the film whatever life it has in the film’s most courageous performance, “Duets” truly goes to hell with Gwyneth Paltrow as Ricky’s daughter, Liv.

For some reason, Bruce Paltrow, Gwyneth’s father, has tried to pass her off as a troubled young woman who wears mini-skirts and talks in a baby’s hush. None of it works, it’s just annoying, and, in the end, even though Gwyneth proves she has a modest set of pipes when she sings on stage with Lewis, I couldn’t have karaoked less about her character.

Grade: D