Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) is a cynical and self-deprecating former pop idol (the hilarious opening video introduces his '80s new wave band Pop!) who is now playing the nostalgia circuit, but has maintained enough dignity to turn down an appearance on a "Battle of the '80s Has-Beens" TV reality show. Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore) is a gifted writer with deep inferiority issues who's been hired to water Fletcher's plants, and ends up becoming his emergency fill-in lyricist for a song he needs to deliver to teen queen singer Cora (Haley Bennett) in four days.

Despite this contrived "cute meet," the film, to its great credit, deftly avoids many possible rom-com tropes in favor of organic, character-driven conflicts and comic situations. Alex and Sophie fall in love, struggle over their song, and wrestle with their own respective resistance to romantic happiness, while simultaneously coping with the frustrations of the creative process and the demands of the music industry. The two leads (aided by great comic sidekick turns from Brad Garrett and Kristen Johnston) manage to pull all this off with a lightness of touch that makes the characters' vulnerability appealing and not pathetic. The original songs by Adam Schlesinger (the go-to guy for singer-songwriter film music) is charming and catchy.

Theatrical Release: Feburary 14, 2007

DVD Features:

Keep Case
Anamorphic Widescreen
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - English, French, Spanish
Subtitles - English, French, Spanish
Additional Release Material:
Additional Footage
Behind the Scenes - 1. "Note for Note": The Making of Music and Lyrics
Deleted Scenes
Gag Reel
Music Video - "Pop Goes My Heart"

Drew Barrymore: American actress and producer
Hugh Grant: British Actor
Brad Garrett: Imposing Actor, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND
Kristen Johnston: Actress, TVs "3rd Rock From the Sun"
Campbell Scott: American Actor, indie film director
Hayley Bennett: Actress, MUSIC AND LYRICS, (2007)

Mark Lawrence: 

Mark Lawrence: 

Scott Elias: Co-Producer, MUSIC AND LYRICS, (2007)
Melissa Wells: Co-Producer, MUSIC AND LYRICS, (2007)

3 stars out of 4 -- "Hugh Grant's has-been pop star in MUSIC AND LYRICS is the ideal fit for the actor's trademark low-key, self-deprecating wit."
"MUSIC AND LYRICS includes some great throwback faux music videos." -- Grade: B-
"The couple work well, with Barrymore's more grounded performance enabling Grant, whose role is business as usual, to steal most of the laughs....There is an understated poetry of sorts at work in the film."
"Grant and Barrymore's] chemistry and comic repartee evoke the lightheartedness of screwball romantic classics of the Thirties and Forties."