MUSE, THE

SYNOPSIS:
Screenwriter Steven Phillips (Albert Brooks) must battle to save his career when his deal with a studio is terminated. Despite turning to nearly all his friends, he has no luck - until he talks to Jack (Jeff Bridges) who introduces him to Sarah (Sharon Stone). Sarah is a muse, one of the mythical nine daughters of Zeus, who promises to inspire Steven so he can write again. But when Sarah’s demands for her services run into thousands of dollars each week, Steven’s wife Laura (Andie McDowell) begins to doubt the wisdom (and Steven’s motives) in hiring her.

"A witty, feel-good comedy that slings poison arrows at the Hollywood system, The Muse is layered with irony - intentional or otherwise. The first irony is that the film is a self-fulfilling prophecy, as it suffers from the same lack of inspiration that the protagonist himself suffers from. Its clever in-jokes at the ridiculousness of life inside Hollywood are mostly funny; having a "drive-on" or a "walk-on (for miles)" permit to the studio, rich Bel-Air estate owners who can’t play a lick of tennis, designer cookies at Spagos. The shark who fires Steven is a set-furniture stealing brat, and when Steven gets a meeting with Spielberg, he gets Steven Spielberg’s deadbeat distant cousin Stan "I haven’t seen Steven in a year" Spielberg (Steve Wright). At other times the comedy falls as flat as Steven’s "I’m King of the room!" joke when he receives his award. And when Steven’s wife Laura (MacDowell) is inspired by the Muse to be the cookie queen of Hollywood, the result is more curiously bemusing than genuinely amusing. The second irony is that Albert Brooks has made a comfortable career writing, directing, and starring in movies about men in mid-life crises. In Mother he’s a novelist who moves back in with Mom, in Modern Romance a neurotic film editor splicing a disaster pic, and in Lost in America a yuppie who escapes the rat race. With The Muse he’s a screenwriter who’s lost his edge; but in similar territory, Steve Martin’s Bowfinger is funnier and Robert Altman’s The Player is smarter. Sharon Stone plays the wacky, pampered Hollywood princess to perfection, though perhaps Tori Spelling would have proved a more inspired choice. Andie MacDowell is as sweet and homely as ever, and Brooks looks as though he’s not acting at all - which is amusing in itself. Off-the-wall cameos from Rob Reiner, Martin Scorsese, and James Cameron (the Muse’s former clients) add a nice touch. An interest in Hollywood, writing, or making movies may up your enjoyment here, but overall, The Muse is a light, funny, and flawed comedy that mostly amuses."
Shannon J Harvey