"Anything But Love"

By Gerri Pare
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- A young woman clings to her hopes of becoming a classy cabaret singer while torn between two love interests in the nostalgia-laden "Anything But Love" (Goldwyn).

Billie Golden (Isabel Rose, who also co-wrote the script) may be singing her beloved standards to a pathetic handful in a dumpy lounge near JFK airport, but she carries on imagining the venue as a swell nightclub from the 1940s filled with glamorous couples. She lives for and dresses as if she's in the bygone era between the Hepburns -- Kate and Audrey.

At home, her widowed, hard-drinking mom (Alix Korey) wants her to give up waitressing by day so she can warble at night, and just get married. And Mom might get her wish when old high school classmate and now prosperous corporate lawyer Greg (Cameron Bancroft) bumps into Billie and is drawn to her unique personality. Romance blossoms despite Greg's lack of enthusiasm for her fragile cabaret career.

Meanwhile, Billie hires pianist Elliot (Andrew McCarthy) to hone her own piano-playing skills. Once he helps her find her true voice as opposed to imitating chanteuses, he finds her irresistible. Newly engaged, she wants to resist. On hand to purr romantic advice between husky torch songs is Eartha Kitt playing herself.

The outcome is fully predictable, although Billie doesn't make up her mind until just after the wedding (by a minister -- not a priest, one presumes, as he is later seen wearing his collar while on a very public date with Billie's best friend).

But the movie's modest charms lie not in the familiar love triangle but in the creative way director Robert Cary has stretched his low-budget film to include fantasy musical sequences and period detail from 50 years ago that make Billie's love of that era so convincing. A dozen standards are performed, although her repeated renditions of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" don't bear close scrutiny. Indeed, at times the movie flirts with becoming a vanity production for Rose.

On a positive note, heavy metal, rap songs, bedroom scenes and violence play no part in this sweet tale of a young woman following her dream, albeit not without making any mistakes. The colorful production design, costumes and coiffures are seeped in nostalgia that is celebratory, not in the least satirical or cynical.

While the ending is too pat and cuddly, it's hard not to enjoy the plucky spirit of this feel-good movie.

Due to occasional profanity and fleeting homosexual innuendo, the USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents are strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

* Pare is the director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.