The picture remained crisp and well-defined through most of the scenes, although a few shots looked a tad soft. ![]() The anamorphic widescreen presentation is of sweet quality, as although the image wasn't flawless, it was awfully nice looking for the majority of the running time. VIDEO: "Little Black Book" is presented by Columbia/Tristar in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen and 1.33:1 full-frame. The film never gets the mixture of light and emotional that well though, (the light parts aren't funny and the drama is too sappy), and Murphy demonstrates that she should probably be part of an ensemble instead of carrying her own film. This mixture of comedy and drama doesn't work as well as it should, but it does present some specks of ideas regarding work and relationships. Theo van de Sande's cinematography is fine, and Christophe Beck's score works. Direction by Nick Hurran (the Brit comedy "Virtual Sexuality") is fairly low-key, and the film could use a bit more spark and energy. Livingston is satisfactory in a limited role, as is Kathy Bates. Murphy is still likable, but "Book" doesn't show that she's able to hold her own in this kind of role. Holly Hunter provides an energetic, funny performance that livens up the material quite a bit. There are some bright spots here, though. There's some interesting bits towards the end, as the film takes a twist or two, but it's a little too late. It could also have done a nice parody or behind-the-scenes look at talk/reality shows, but the "Kippy Kann" (played pretty well by Kathy Bates) segments aren't memorable. Writers Melissa Carter and Elisa Bell, however, really don't mine much from it, going for sitcom situations and thinly-realized characters. There's a small, decent idea at the core of the film - with palm pilots and other such electronics becoming a part of the dating world these days, it's fairly easy to see how these gadgets could be become part of the plot of a film like this. ![]() ![]() After encouragement from her co-worker, Barb (Holly Hunter), Stacy takes Derek's palm pilot and tries to do some investigating of her own, meeting up with Lulu (Josie Maran), Joyce (Julianne Nicholson, offering the film's best performance) and gynecologist Katie (Rashida Jones). She's having a great relationship with Derek (Ron Livingston of "Office Space"), but she's curious about his past relationships after hearing that he once dated a girl that's now a model. Here, Murphy stars as Stacy Holt, a young woman who finds herself settling on a job on the local Kippie Kann show, a talk show that resembles Jerry Springer or Jenny Jones. I've liked Murphy in the past, but she's gone a little too long without doing anything new. Brittany Murphy, offered up here for the first time in a role where she has to carry the movie, doesn't do terribly well, revealing a rather lackluster ability to play comedy (although, to her credit, the screenplay isn't particularly funny) or the film's emotional moments. Sony would see returned about $12.1M after theaters take their percentage of the gross - leaving at least $25M worth of global P&A costs in the red and the budget untouched by the theatrical receipts.A plain romantic comedy that really doesn't succeed or fail, "Little Black Book" coasts along fairly uneventfully, offering up a few laughs and a good bit or two before the credits roll. Sony dumped Little Black Book overseas in a small release, where it pulled in just $1,336,164. It bombed out of theaters with $20,698,668. Little Black Book declined 46.5% to $3,784,115 in its second frame and then sank 59.9% in its third session to $1,517,423. ![]() It was booked as counter-programming to Collateral and pulled in a poor $7,075,217 - placing #5 for the weekend led by Collateral. Sony dated the poorly reviewed Brittany Murphy vehicle in a similar late summer slot that her first solo headlining film Uptown Girls had the year prior. Sony distributed the movie in most markets and this was one of the few blemishes of a very good year for Sony, which finished in the top spot of domestic grossers of all the studios in 2004. This would also be the last studio picture to top-line Brittany Murphy. Revolution head Joe Roth had landed one of the greatest studio deals ever with Sony, who had more to lose on each project than Roth’s Revolution - and had originally envisioned his company making filmmaker friendly fare with A-listers and then squandered Revolution’s reserves on mostly lousy movies like Little Black Book. Revolution financed Little Black Book for $35 million and Revolution’s financing slate agreement with Sony had Sony contribute 42.5% of the budget and 100% of the marketing costs. Melissa Carter sold her Little Black Book spec to Revolution Studios in 2001 and the project began to move forward in 2003. Cast: Brittany Murphy, Holly Hunter, Kathy Bates, Ron Livingston.
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