Jolie, Burns transcend ‘Life or Something Like It’

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In theaters

LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT, directed by Stephen Herek, written John Scott Shepherd and Dana Stevens, 104 minutes, rated PG-13.

Stephen Herek’s “Life or Something Like It” follows a tumultuous week in the life of Lanie Kerrigan, a Seattle-based TV news reporter whose identity is defined by her enormous platinum-blond blowout, her defiant breasts and an interview style that suggests more Brenda Starr than Greta Van Susteren.

That these qualities bring her national fame makes perfect sense in today’s culture of airheads filling up the airwaves. But are they enough to bring Lanie happiness? And should any of us really care whether they do?

The film, from a script by John Scott Shepherd and Dana Stevens, stars Angelina Jolie as Lanie, which means that in the course of a year, the Academy Award-winning actress has gone from being a mail-order tramp in “Original Sin” to a local television news personality whose hair is a sin.

Those in the know will wonder whether there’s a difference between the two characters or whether the role is even a step up for Jolie, but arguably it is. In Hollywood, getting off one’s back to perform in front of a camera is almost always considered a step up and cause for celebration.

In the film, Lanie’s shallow life gets the jolt it needs when a homeless man named Prophet Jack (Tony Shalhoub, redefining Seattle grunge) informs her during an interview that she has only a week to live.

After dismissing the comment as trash, Lanie is forced to think otherwise when a series of Jack’s other predictions mysteriously come true.

Now convinced death is imminent, she takes a hard look at herself, her vacuous baseball star of a boyfriend, her perfect apartment and her empty life, and – surprise! – doesn’t like what she sees. A romance with a down-to-earth cameraman played by Edward Burns goes a long way in getting Lanie back on track before fate intervenes and does its thing.

What’s interesting about “Life or Something Like It” is that in spite of all this – the weak premise, the big hair, the sexism and the stereotypes – it isn’t as bad as it sounds. It’s pure formula, for sure, but the chemistry between Jolie and Burns isn’t manufactured. They have something on screen that transcends the material and reshapes it, turning the movie into a romantic comedy that wouldn’t have been nearly as watchable without them in it.

Grade: B-

On video and DVD

WAKING LIFE, written and directed by Richard Linklater, animation direction by Bob Sabiston, 99 minutes, rated R.

“In life, the trick is to combine your waking rational abilities with the infinite possibilities of your dreams. If you can do that, you can do anything.”

Or so says a character in Richard Linklater’s “Waking Life.”

But what happens if you never learn that trick? Or if you can’t get behind the idea that – according to this film – we’re all telepathically sharing our experiences and that the greatest mistake you can make is to believe you’re alive?

The non-answers to those questions – and many others like them – are tucked within the seams of this endlessly trippy film.

Sometimes brilliant yet other times maddening, “Waking Life” is an animated film that’s an exercise in the fusion of illusion and reality; it is absolutely not for those seeking a run-of-the-mill Hollywood movie. Alive with so many provocative ideas and theories about life, living, death and the meaning of dreams, it can’t be viewed with a trace of passivity.

Together with his art director, Bob Sabiston, Linklater has crafted a dizzying maelstrom of philosophies wrapped around images reminiscent of those in a graphic novel. As his characters plunge into the meaning of life and the mysteries of the world (and beyond), Linklater’s movie literally burns, shimmers and jitters with life itself.

What he’s created is a near-seamless marriage between the medium of film and the content of a story. Using Sabiston’s interpolated rotoscoping software, he’s taken live-action video and painted over it frame by frame, thus generating an impressionist’s dream from the roots of reality – which is exactly where Linklater suggests we live.

As serious as the film sounds, it sometimes has a biting sense of humor, both in its animation, which can be wild, and in its dialogue, which is more than willing to poke fun at itself while reinforcing the idea that “the ongoing wow is happening now.”

Grade: A

Christopher Smith’s reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, occasionally on Fridays on E! Entertainment’s “E! News Weekend,” Tuesdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5” and Thursdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” on WLBZ-2 and WCSH-6. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

THE VIDEO/DVD CORNER

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores.

Ali ? B+

Not Another Teen Movie ? C-

Behind Enemy Lines ? C-

No Man’s Land ? A

Black Knight ? F

The Deep End ? A

Domestic Disturbance ? C

The Man Who Wasn’t There ?

B+

Mulholland Drive ? A

Spy Game ? C+

Bandits ? D

13 Ghosts ? F

Donnie Darko ? B

K-Pax ? B-

Life as a House ? C

Original Sin ? F

Our Lady of the Assassins ? B+

Riding in Cars with Boys ? B-

Training Day ? B-

Heist ? B+

Joy Ride ? B+

Zoolander ? C-

A.I. ? B-

The Last Castle ? C-

Sexy Beast ? B+