Rating: 
Summary: Spend the time to watch this one..............
Review: it's not "edge of your seat" or dripping with romance, but its good. good, in that you can FEEL it. the tension, the issues, the past, all of it. kate b. is OKAY, her guy is okay. their generic relationship is okay. but, i think its real. Now, lets look at francis. SHE, ONCE AGAIN, IS INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! if for no other reason you rent this movie, RENT IT TO SEE FRANCIS!!!!!! could she be any more real???? what an actress!!!!! actually, what a SOUL. i mean, what a soul she must have to pull from (to play these roles). rent this movie. she, alone, makes it worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: Too many shallow people in one DVD
Review: Regrets that I spent time watching Laurel Canyon which fails to capture the excitement and free spirit of independent musicians and producers. Laurel Canyon attempts to explore the relationships of upper middle class young adults and their parents. The script is unworthy of the quality actors. Finally the possibility of being a mature adult who is capable of enjoying life is explored in the most superficial ways.
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Rating:
Summary: "You can control your heart."
Review: "Laurel Canyon" from director Lisa Cholodenko is the story of the problematic relationship between record producer mother Jane (Frances McDormand) and pyschiatrist son, Sam (Christian Bale). Sam, about to begin a residency programme, brings fiancee Alex (Kate Beckinsale) to his mother's house in Laurel Canyon. Jane isn't supposed to be there, but thanks to yet another tumultuous end to one of her many relationships, Jane is at the house with a British rock band trying to finalize a record. Sam is very annoyed by his mother's presence and apologizes in advance to Alex for his mother. Obviously just being in the same house sets Sam's teeth on edge, and his unease and impatience is in direct contrast to his mother's laid-back attitude about everything except music. Jane, who is in her 40s, is currently involved with boy-toy rocker Ian Macknight, and Sam clearly doesn't approve of all the frolicking that's going on while he's hard at work. Alex, who is supposed to be working on her dissertation, is slowly seduced away from her work and into the fun-loving company of the rest of the Lotus-eating residents. The film was flawed and does not reach the heights of perfection of "High Art"--Cholodenko's earlier film. Natascha McElhone as Sara--the beautiful resident attracted to Sam was a bit much for me. She looks like an international model dressed up as a doctor. The film would have been much better if Sara and Sam had an attraction that was a meeting of the minds rather than Sam's jaw dropping to the ground whenever he looks her way. Alessandro Nivola as Ian Macknight was marvellous. He played the role with a debonair decadence that was quite perfect. However, the main applause here must go to Frances McDormand. She was incredible. She plays the intense, successful and driven Jane with fire. Jane's character is very genuine, and while I marvelled that anyone like Sam could be related--even remotely--to someone like Jane--I also believed the relationship. Sam has spent a lifetime trying to be the opposite of his mother, but he may be more like her than he wants to admit. The film also had a great soundtrack. Cholodenko captured the mood of Southern California as few filmmakers have ever done, and I am excited to see more from this director--displacedhuman.
Rating: 
Summary: Frances McDormand almost saves this one.
Review: There are three good things here, Frances McDormand's performance as the pot smoking record producer mom, Alessandro Nivola as the rat-toothed, lead singing narcissist and a good, mood defining soundtrack that cues up at the right moments, so I give them each a star. The movie is a b-l-a-n-d yuppies-in-trouble story with two miss-matched performances: Christian Bale and Kate Beckinsale. I agree with the other reviewers that see this as a muddy mix of AB Fab and Almost Famous.
Rating:
Summary: Can't Go Wrong With Bale and McDormand.
Review: We all go through a stage (for some it's months, others a lifetime) where everything mom or dad does just hits that annoyed bone instantly. Maybe dad has a habit of smacking his lips for no apparent reason or mom's got a habit of tossing out constant malaprops. Laurel Canyon focuses part of its energy on that dynamic with a child who is now stodgily adult and still unwilling to accept his mother for the slightly off-kilter, pot smoking bohemian she is. Along the way the character also must reconcile his desires with his fiancé's needs. While Canyon does tread some familiar territory, it does so only as a baseline for providing some interesting characters. Sam, played with scary precision by the nearly infallible Christian Bale, returns to Southern California to finish off his residency and brings along his uppity Ph.D. writing WASP fiancé, Alex. They plan to stay at his mother's home in Laurel Canyon. Jane, Sam's mother, is supposed to be at her Malibu home. Unbeknownst to Sam, Jane, feeling guilty gave an ex-lover the Malibu home. So Sam and Alex must share the home with Jane and the rock band for which Jane's producing an album. As one would expect Jane and her rocker friends begin to change Alex. This isn't unexpected as Kate Beckinsale quickly reveals how lonely and confused about life Alex really is. Her progression in the film is only mildly interesting, though Beckinsale does try her best. Her one standout scene actually comes early in the film when she becomes rather catty with a co-worker of Sam's. The crux of the story really rests on Sam's shoulders. In the hands of a lesser actor Sam would have been nothing more than a stiff shirt. Some hack like Tom Cruise would speak clearly and move adroitly about as if this tells everything about Sam. Bale takes Sam and makes him a tragic figure without doing anything over the top. Bale's greatest gift is his ability to register his thoughts clearly with just a move of his eyes, a twitch of the brow or a purse of his lips. We read Sam's mind in every interaction. He's not a just a conservative would-be-doctor who hates his mother. That's too simple a gross insult to the character. Little moments such as Sam's parking structure sequence involving a co-worker reveal the inner turmoil of the character in a fashion 99% of actors could never approach. He varies between interested, rejected, offended, excited, guilty and decimated so effortlessly it's like watching one of the few remaining masters of any craft display his wares for the world. Much will be made of France McDormand's Jane. She's a great actress and really does flip so nicely between roles. Whether she's playing a hyper sports fiend in Lone Star to that [sheriff] in Fargo to her drunken whore in The Man Who Wasn't There McDormand can play any role and make you believe she is that person. Here she's an aging producer holding onto her wild youth by clinging to studly rockers, while also trying desperately to have some semblance of a normal relationship with her dejected, far more mature, confused son. It's in the moments with her lover and with Sam that the character really comes alive. A quick nod to Alessandro Nivola is needed too. He plays Jane's new love interest, the randy bandleader Ian. Nivola gets to have fun with the role and basically play up a smarmy side he hasn't displayed thus far in his films. Hopefully he'll find himself busier after his nice turn here. While Canyon doesn't tread new ground, mother-son battles, confused partners, people coming out of their shell, it does give us some strong characters who end up feeling real. Their jobs are irrelevant. It's how they interact and more importantly react that makes Canyon an engaging film. Sam's sudden violent outburst comes with such a rush and ferocity that it's jarring but very logical. Alex's tinkering with new experiences doesn't surprise until she begins to cross a line that's not entirely foreshadowed. It all comes together and makes sense, yet never spells everything out with the annoying clarity of most Hollywood films. There isn't a sense of "this problem is solved" so much as all of this led to a climax and now there will be fallout. What will it be? That's up to the viewer to determine.
Rating: 
Summary: Kate Beckinsale is terrific
Review: Great movie, great music, great acting, great story! Kate Beckinsale did an incredible job as Alex, and was incredibly beautiful as always! If nothing else, buy the DVD just to see her ;-)
Rating:
Summary: Loved This Movie. Really Love Kate Beckinsale- Major Babe!
Review: I can understand some of the criticism, but despite mixed reviews, I loved this movie! The actors were not like people I have encountered before, but isn't that one of the main the points for most movie watching- getting a chance to see people completely different from you in a setting also foreign to you.
I have always had a strange fascination with California because of the "free spirit" lifestyle and strange mixture of people form different parts of the country and world (England with the rock star character). I didn't agree with the actions of many of the Laurel Canyon "residents" (excessive drug use, loose morals in relationships, etc.), but the reactions from the "outsiders" played by the boring Christian Bale and the extraordinarily lovely Kate Beckinsale create a fascinating story. Okay, there are weak moments in the plotline such as the Israelite Doctor who has a distinctive Russian accent being a love interest, but really who cares? This movie wasn't meant to take itself too seriously. Everyone talks about how Frances McDormand has the most enthralling part. I could not agree less. Kate Beckinsale is my new dream girl and will hopefully be on her way to becoming a major star. She deserves it after adding so much to what could have been a mediocre movie. I could have easily sat through another hour of this movie as long as Kate Beckinsale was the center of attention. Her transformation from uptight, studious girl to a "rock groupie" was wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: Frances McDormand exudes such grace and elegance that makes a great movie superior to the rest. Truly wonderful portrait of the mother-son relationship!
Rating:
Summary: LADY OF THE CANYON
Review: Maybe one has to indulge in lead character Jane's party favors to enjoy "Laurel Canyon", a domestic comedy about a newly graduated physician intern who temporarily moves into his rock and roll mother's home with his girlfriend. As it is, the lusts and loves of the characters inside this Canyon mini-mansion mostly reminded me of a Frankie and Annette beach party movie complete with the foreign exotic beauty who shows up on the beach to steal Frankie's heart. Successful rock and roll producer Jane is all attitude, no characterization, strutting around her recording studio in a muscle T-shirt, smoking joints, and behaving like a poster child for a renewed subscription to 'Rolling Stone' magazine. The rest of the characters buzz around her like equally bland insects to a glaring light. This movie concerns corporate rock and roll and that just isn't cool enough. It also suffers from a sad desire to be "Absolutely Fabulous".
Rating:
Summary: This movie had potential but fell short...
Review: This movie about a medical student who comes back to Hollywood to his mother's home on Laurel Canyon had a lot of potential. I really think that the movie seem to be over edited or something because it was missing something. The two main characters, Sam (christian bale) and Alex (Kate Beckinsale) are fiances and both students from Harvard. Sam begins his residency in Los Angeles and moves to the supposedly empty house of his record producer mother (Frances McDormant, expecting to find a quiet place where he can work on his residency while his fiance writes her dissertation on the mating habits of flies and looks for a home for them to call their own. When they arrive they walk in on his mother doing pot with the band she is working with. And thus the story spirals down a hill of lust and drug use...where Sam fights to keep his lust for a fellow resident in check while fighting to keep his relationship with Alex from falling apart. The characters of Alex and Sam are obviously not comfortable with each other as evident in the first scene which shows the couple's extremely cringe-worthy awkward attempt at making love...so most of the movie the audience is left wondering why is Sam working so hard to save a mediocre relationship where you actually question if the partners actually love each other. The best part of the whole movie is the end, when the audience is left with the possibility that Sam actually stops "trying to do the right thing" and actually goes with his heart. The whole movie is basically pulled off with the excellent acting by Frances McDormant who pulls the whole movie and makes as good as it. Without her craft in this picture I would say this film deserves no more than a 1 1/2.
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