She’s Funny That Way is a good movie, coming across sometimes funny and sometimes serious, but has a great cast that keeps the show on the road.
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich, who helmed such winners as Paper Moon and The Last Picture Show, does a fine job with this movie as it seeks an amicable ending. Another favorite of mine, Wes Anderson, who directed such witty movies as The Grand Budapest Hotel and Fantastic Mr. Fox, is one of the many producers of this movie.
It starts off with a sit down interview with Izzy, played by Imogen Poots, who is a hooker-turned actress and now successful. She talks about her rise to stardom and her first Broadway role. She reflects on the people involved in her breakout role, and the movie cuts to that time on Broadway, where they are thrown into a state of romantic uncertainty and confusion.
A salacious, but bleeding heart director, played convincingly by Owen Wilson, hires Izzy, a former hooker he solicited, now turned actress, to star alongside his wife, played humorously by Kathryn Hahn, and his wife’s ex-lover, played by Rhys Ifans. Playing on the outer edge of this confusion and adding a lot of hilarity are Jennifer Aniston, Cybil Sheppard and Will Forte. There are also numerous cameos, including Tatum O’Neal, Quentin Tarantino and Peter Bogdanovich himself.
The movie really gets fun when the director’s wife (Hahn) discovers his fetish for soliciting and then helping call girls. It comes to light when one of the more recent call girls he helped, Izzy, auditions for a role in the play he is directing. She does a fantastic reading because she is reading for a call girl, typecasting. A hilarious scene follows where his wife, who wants to get back at her husband, rehearses with the lead actor (Ifans) in a passionate love scene, and she makes real sexual advances toward him. The director tries to stay professional, as her husband is jealous. I was laughing at his reactions, so funny all the way through, and Wilson is hilarious.
Jennifer Aniston plays someone that I have never seen her play before, an unlikable character, so I was uncomfortable with it at first. She does a great job of being the typical psychologist who totally makes the patient feel inadequate and weak. Adding to that, in their face, telling them what is wrong with them. Aniston is great and funny.
There are so many good qualities in this movie. The reason I really enjoyed it is that the director, Peter Bogdanovich, brought together all these fine actors, some of whom I had worked with before. He is such a wonderful director, and I am delighted to see him working again.