Death by a Thousand Tabloids

There was a slice of time in the late 1990s and early 2000s where it felt like John Cusack went from “the guy that used to be a teen heartthrob” to A-list actor. It didn’t last long, and I think that’s in large part because Cusack, like many of the characters he portrayed, was a tad neurotic and didn’t really seem comfortable with the limelight. He made some really choice movies during that stretch of films, with the likes of Grosse Point Blank and High-Fidelty becoming really all time winners, but even as Cusack’s name became a draw, it never seemed like Cusack himself really wanted it the way most actors did.

I think that’s also what drew him to roles that seemed specifically engineered to counter-program that A-List Actor designation. He’d be the leading man in a film but the movie had to cast him as a gun-toting psychopath, or a neurotic and self-destructive record store owner or, in the case of America’s Sweethearts, an actor that desperately didn’t even want to be an actor anymore. Whether it was a case of Cusack hearing of the film and ensuring he was cast in it, or the script was originally developed with Cusack in mind, it was one of the most fortuitous bits of casting I’ve ever seen (and we’ll answer that in a bit, don’t worry).

I have to think the film was written with him in mind because there aren’t a lot of actors that could play this perfectly tuned, neurotic mess of tics, imbalances, and avoidance issues. He, in fact, seems like the only actor that was specifically in mind for a role, and that’s despite there being some real A-list talents in here, like Catherine Zeta-Jones and Julia Roberts (the latter of which also got top billing on the film). This is a real who’s who of comedy and acting – Billy Crystal (who also co-wrote), Hank Azaria, Stanley Tucci, Christopher Walken, Alan Arkin, Seth Green… just an absolutely packed cast all having a great time on the film. That infectious quality carries through even as we get one of the most inside baseball films about Hollywood from this whole period of time. It’s great… but it’s also a lot.

It’s Cusack, though, who really stands out. He plays Eddie Thomas, a true A-lister who starred in a string of absolute blockbusters opposite his then-wife, Gwen Harrison (Zeta-Jones). Gwen, though, left him during filming of their last movie, Time Over Time, instead falling into the arms of co-star Hector Gorgonzolas (Azaria). This drove Eddie more than a little insane, and when we pick up with him he’s at a retreat in the mountains of California, learning to restore his inner peace and fine true oneness.

This is all ruined by publicist Lee Phillips (Crystal). Lee worked on all the Eddie and Gwen films, but when they broke up, studio head Len Wiseman (Tucci) fired Lee. However, Lee was rehired when the latest cut of Time Over Time was sent to Wiseman for a private screening. Except there’s nothing on the roll of film except the opening titles. The director, Hal Weidmann (Walken) refuses to release the film until the big, celebrity premiere, leaving them with absolutely no movie to advertise. Lee has to publicize the hell out of a film without having the film, and the only way to do that is to get all the stars of the film together at a resort, hold the mother of all press junkets, and hope no one notices that the film is missing. What could possibly go wrong?

America’s Sweethearts is a very funny film, but much of that humor is driven by Cusack. The star, for all of his character’s neuroses, is magnetic on screen. He has a way of taking over any scene he’s in. He wanders, he mumbles, he does fast patter, and it all works. There’s a constant draw watching him build himself up and crumble down all at the same time, and you both want to see it all happen and then hope, somehow, he pulls himself together… and then laugh when he doesn’t. You should feel bad about it, but Cusack makes it work.

Naturally much of that credit also deserves to go to Crystal. He and co-writer Peter Tolan (who is a prolific sitcom writer with an absolutely impressive resume) crafted a fun, light, and yet also tautly engineered little comedy, a comedy of errors, misunderstandings, and bold faced lies. Because, you know, Hollywood. The film perfectly highlights the artifice of these stars, and all the press that comes with them. From sniping and fighting when no one is looking at Eddie and Gwen, to trying to pretend they’re perfect friends whenever the cameras are on them, all while Eddie seethes and wishes he’d never come to the stupid event, it all works so well.

What’s interesting to me, though, is that while Cusack is perfectly cast as Eddie, and the script works for him so well, I don’t feel like many of the other actors are as solid in the film. Zeta-Jones has fun vamping it up as the truly fake Gwen, but she never really seems to find the heart or soul of the character. Sure, that’s Gwen as the film writes her, but it would have been nice if somewhere, in all of it, a real emotion could have come through so you understood, just a little, why Eddie was with her at all. Roberts is perfectly fine as Kiki, Gwen’s sister and personal assistant, but she feels like she’s from a different movie, one of the actress’s standard romantic comedies instead of this weird farce. And Azaria is totally miscast in, honestly, a pretty racist role that ruins many of the scenes he’s in. If anyone should have been ejected from the film, it’s Hank Azaria.

And yet, despite this, so much of it does work. The film strings you along, wondering what the final version of Time Over Time will look like even as the various performers get into one mishap after another. And when the final reveal of the film happens (which, despite this movie’s age, I won’t spoil because it is a real banger) it absolutely redefines everything that came before. The climax of this film really sells it and lets any of the flaws of the previous hour-plus fall away. The conclusion is hilarious, satisfying, and altogether exactly what the film needed.

America’s Sweethearts isn’t a perfect film, but it is perfect for Cusack. He shines here, making me think this movie was made specifically for him… even though it really wasn’t. Robert Downey, Jr. was originally cast for the role of Eddie, and while he could also do the neurotic schtick well enough (go watch Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), I don’t think he would have done it as well or made the film as good. This is Cusack’s film, through and through, and he nails it.

And it was a success at the Box Office, making $138.3 Mil against its $48 Mil production budget. Despite this, though, it was a critical failure (holding only a 33% on Rotten Tomatoes) and has been largely forgotten over the years. I’m not going to try and call it a gem of a film as it does have its flaws, but if you’re looking for another great Cusack performance, this one has it in spades. As for the actor, he went on to star in many, many more solid films, although none that really played as well to his neurotic performance as in this movie. Not up until Hot Tub Time Machine, and there’s a weird throughline I thought I’d never make.