Juliet, Naked (2018)

Directed by Jesse Peretz. Starring Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke, Chris O’Dowd, Lily Brazier, Ayoola Smart, Denise Gough, Azhy Robertson, Phil Davis. (R)

After museum curator Byrne negatively reviews an old collection of acoustic demos from Tucker Crowe (Hawke), a former musician long absent from the public eye, Crowe contacts her and they slowly begin an epistolary relationship, even though she already has a boyfriend (O’Dowd), an obsessive fan of Crowe’s music. Quaint, rambling, semi-charmed seriocomic romance is a mixed bag, but has its share of pleasures. Hawke is well-cast and Byrne’s rumpled optimism makes for a winsome protagonist; O’Dowd plays arrogant, but there’s weary wisdom to the way his idealized fixation on someone else reveals how he’s actually self-absorbed. Hawke’s lifetime regrets and family drama aren’t nearly as interesting as the film’s perceptive attitudes toward the meaning and ownership of art. Bits of Crowe’s music play throughout, very middle-of-the-road stuff—it would have worked a lot better if it was either actually quite good (to play up the poignancy angle) or embarrassingly bad (to play up the satire angle). Based on a Nick Hornby novel. The biggest laugh lands during a mid-credit sequence, so stick around for it.

64/100