Rating: 
Summary: An adult movie in the good sense of the term
Review: 'Laurel Canyon' is an adult movie in the good sense of the term: strong character development; real-life believable situations; and an ending that jolts you with its abruptness and immediately sets you to thinking. For all intents and purposes, there are five people in this film: Frances McDormand - What an actress. Hard to believe this is Brainerd, Minnesota's sherriff Marge Gunderson up there. Talk about channeling a character. Christian Bale - Can't be overlooked here because he's got to be believable as someone who attracts the love interest of both Kate Beckinsale and Natascha McElhone. [Happens to all guys, right?] Kate Beckinsale - So good-looking you'd think it would be tough for her to pull off the the brainiac bookworm role, but I never doubted it for a second. Natascha McElhone - Looks great here as always. So-called Israeli accent a bit all over the map for this classically trained English actress, pero no me molesta. Lisa Cholodenko was looking for the allure vs. the uptight Beckinsale portrayal of fiancee Alex. I was sold. Alessandro Nilova - Underrated. I was totally charmed by this guy as Brit rocker Ian McKnight. As the anti-Sam (Bale), you could see why Beckinsale's character is drawn to him. Plus, he has movie's goofiest lines. Like when he picks up the phone when Sarah calls the house: "That's a lovely accent, Sarah, where are you from?" [Pause - you don't hear the answer on the screen.] "Well, what a coincidence, I'm eating a bagel right now. Hold on, I'll get Sam." Sounds idiotic, but by that time, Nivola has established McKnight's harmless chatter and sweet character. The ending is Cholodenko's gift to the audience. It's abrupt and completely subject to the viewer's interpretation. You will immediately find yourself making a judgement as to which of two ways Bale's character will turn. I did so impulsively. I bet you do the same.
Rating:
Summary: A Confrontation of Lifestyles
Review: "Laurel Canyon" is an entrancing languid film about the intersection of individuals and lifestyles. Briefly, the film covers the relationship between a young professional couple who have been studying at Harvard played by (Sam) Christian Bale and (Alex) Kate Beckinsale and the lifestyle of Sam's record producer mother Jane (Frances Mc Dormand) and her younger boyfriend Ian (Allesandro Nivola). The Harvard culture is conservative and polite whereas Jane's Los Angeles culture is uninhibited and hedonistic. Sam is embarrassed by his mother while Alex is slowly drawn in like a moth to a flame. The couple comes to within a hair's breadth of falling apart but it is Sam who first recognises problems and temptations when he resists an attractive work colleague Sara played by Natasha Mc Elhone. He then confronts his partner who steps back from the edge of a moral abyss. Sense is ultimately seen by all and the two lifestyles choose to recognise and respect their differences. The plot is virtually non-existent. Rather, the film is a study of the simmering tensions between two very different ways of life. It is this tension that sustains the film.
Rating:
Summary: Taboo and Adult Commitment
Review: Laurel Canyon is a street that runs through the Hollywood Hills. It has always been known as a place for the hippies, the Boogie Night scene, the off kilter, slightly left of left neighborhoods. Into this community come Chrisitan Bale and Kate Beckinsale, newly marired and graduates of Harvard Medical School. Conserative by nature, uptight and serious. They are moving into Alex's (Christin Bale) mom's home while she is away. But, then Jane (Frances McDermond) isn't away. She is a veteran record producer and is in the midst of producing a hit single for a British group. The lead singer, Ian (Alessandro Nivola) and lover of Jane is just taking too long to get these tunes right.
The music he wields is on the edge and the beat grabs you. Into this mix of honest exploration of relationships and a divergence of world views comes the revolution. Jane is into physical relationships, man and woman and variations of them all. Alex, the son, wants nothing to do with his mom's behavior. He wants the exact opposite. How will this resolve? What happens when two conservative Harvard grads break free of their boundaries? Can mom and her lover keep their fantasies to themselves? What is it about Laurel Canyon- what draws these people into a search for themeselves? I liked this movie- reminds me of the heydays of the 70's and 80's- prisrob
Rating:
Summary: Canyon Capers and Chateau Marmont
Review: If you were privy to the Laurel Canyon lifestyle in the 60s and 70s, this film is like a retro shock with all the old familiar haunts still there, and the inevitable lost generation of 20 somethings wandering the deer trail lanes of traffic to hang with the musicians. At least, this is how the premise of the 2002 version of the canyon lifestyle is reflected. Between the generation of hippie organic mama (Frances McDormand) and her predictably uptight conservative son (Christian Bale) and his uber egghead grad student girlfriend (Kate Beckinsale) are the silences of a parent who did her thing and a son who didn't. Literally caught between them is the luscious Beckinsale, who comes to enjoy the hedonism the mother's world of music and a young lover (Allessando Nivola) present. She likes the pot, pool parties, and 3-somes while her fiance dallies with the sublimated lust for a professional colleague who is more his cup of straight-laced tea. His resentment of mom's ability to be cool and productive clash with his inability to make decisions about his own lifestyle choice, a serious wife in training, medical practice, and the possibility of affairs with other women. He is as much drawn to sin and swinging as Kate. The tension of the six characters makes the story of kids and parents failure to communicate as old as the perennial hills. Great soundtrack with vocals by Nivola and recording sessions are added plus. McDormand is one of the finest character actors around, and she rises to the challenge of taking back seat to Beckinsale's beauty. Nevertheless, McDormand steals the show everytime she is onscreen. We don't care about the young couple, we care about the three-way between mother, her lover, and her son's lover...that's Hollywood!
Rating: 
Summary: Good Acting, Poor Vehicle
Review: McDormand does a terrific job on this one. Too bad she had such a lousy screenplay to showcase her undeniable talent. She's good enough to rise above it. Ugly, self-absorbed people leading their ugly, self-absorbed lives. Not a good movie at all.
Rating: 
Summary: A Must See
Review: I rented this movie because I am a Joni Mitchell fan, and the title just drew me in. I'm glad it did, because it turned out to be an excellent movie.
Rating:
Summary: A reversal of generations that¿s bound to clash ¿ and does
Review: Well, I'll watch anything with Frances McDormand in it - and this one's a beauty. Laurel Canyon is a generational role reversal. Hippie counterculture mom, Jane (McDormand), has produced a child, now an adult conservative, Harvard grad, psychiatric intern with an equally proper girlfriend. The young couple move into mom's house, expecting it to be empty, but Jane's still there, in residence with her current lover, a British rocker who's experiencing problems finishing his album. Betrayal and attraction vie for supremacy as the young couple is pulled in opposite directions and struggle with their true natures. Wonderful hang-it-all-out acting by McDormand, and equally wonderful trying-to-keep-it-tight acting by son and girlfriend (Christian Bale and Kate Beckinsale).
Rating:
Summary: skip it
Review: I saw it for all the talented folks involved and because I pretty much don't miss any Frances McDormand films. I ingored the lukewarm reviews. I shouldn't have. It's pretty awful.
Rating: 
Summary: Mixed feelings, really...
Review: There is a certain undeniable pleasure in watching bad films, the failed attempts, and then going eloquent about that. It's like reconfirming the codes we all share, feeling yourself to be a one of the species, a member of the quality control board where all the discerning moviegoers are welcome. It's fascinating to read dozens of critics' reviews which tell you why's this new production falls short of perfection or is no good at all despite all the effort invested - and agree. If you're not going to remember this film as a great - or at least satisfying - cinematic experience you can get your kicks from looking at it from above. Which is also endearing sometimes. All the failings of Laurel Canyon are self-evident: the plot is ultimately formulaic, everything is so predictable, the antagonisms and temptations are so clichéd, the depictions of "opposing" lifestyles are unintentional parody. The director's agenda "appears to be a lesbian-positive theme of openness to experimentation and its accompanying emotional costs", the tired conflict of hip and square with the only nuance in making the mother a rock'n'roll libertine and the son an uptight conservator. Frances McDormand has to do her best and look convincingly alive and witty with a gems like that:
Alex: We just hadn't planned on a change of plan.
Jane: Well who plans on a change of plan? I mean, that would be sorta paranoid, don't you think? Most of the time she succeeds - no thanks to the self-important scriptwriting studded with helpless witticisms of the movie's director Ms. Cholodenko. The casting is reason enough to see this cinema school excercize and not have any regrets afterwards. I like to watch Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale, Natascha McElhone and Alessandro Nivola walk and talk no matter how inferior is the script and directing. These are very beautiful and intelligent people and as an actors they're in a more or less the same category - underrated. As much as I agree with the Laurel Canyon's more ardent critics there's a sequence that redeems for me that almost-a-film. The movie's promotional review written for the Cannes festival tells that ""Laurel Canyon" is a witty film that takes fascinating turns yet contains an unfortunate I-can't-make-up-my-mind-how-to-finish-this ending." Well, this ending, these finishing minutes when the director\scriptwriter thankfully dropped her pretense of being in control are one of these thrilling surprises you can sometimes encounter even in the ultimately moderate and uninspired productions. Everything is kind of resolved, the apologies are accepted, the temptations are withstood, Christian Bale's character sheds the excess vigor swimming in the villa's pool, looking great - and wasted. That's when he gets a call from an Israeli doctor played by the sultry Natascha McElhone. He had already closed the door on her. But hearing her voice he realizes there are no closed doors in this life and it's the moment of a very acute inner clarity, he submerges, putting the transparent mass of water between himself and the world above, the music plays and I get in a trancelike state of amazement that has nothing to do with any unhealthy substances readily available these days, it's the pure enjoyment of art, that can emerge for a couple minutes even from the most helpless drivel. P.S. As a sucker for quirky details I was greatly amused by the Kate Beckinsale's Alex who - after kissing his boyfriend's mother so lustily in the pool - sports the AC/DC T-shirt during her next morning jog - like a repentant Medieval sinner would wear the robe woven of hair as a sign of the painful regret and a signal to the others to stay back from her doomed self. Was that intentional?
Rating:
Summary: Dull as ditchwater
Review: This is one drab & predictable exercise. A young couples strength is tested by rock stars and foreign accents. Christian Bale as the uptight, stuffy guy and Kate Beckinsale as the repressed bookworm. After the temptations are overcome the 2 lovebirds relationship is all the stronger for it. Just like life only stupider. Avoid this like the plague unless you are a big fan of head trauma.
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