The setup of "Music and Lyrics" is cleverly simple. Hugh Grant, as one Alex Fletcher, is one-half of a pop group of '80s fame, the unsuccessful half. The other boy has gone on to movie greatness and entertainment imperialism on a grand scale; Grant's Fletcher, by contrast, lives in a decent but hardly palatial apartment in Manhattan.

Grant is a superb comic actor when he gets his jiving and shucking under control, as here, and he gets not only Fletcher's weariness but also his self-contempt -- yet also his decency. Enter cute Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore). She's here to water the plants, here being his apartment, while he is in turmoil with a snarky young lyricist. The issue is that Alex has been asked by a New Age pop sensation to come up with a song for her video; it could be his ticket back to the bigs, but he has to do it by Friday, and working with this rude kid doesn't seem to be getting anyone anywhere. Then why is the girl watering the plants coming up with better lines?

Soon an extremely awkward partnership is born: the musician who hates himself and the failed short-story-writer-turned-plant-waterer who is astounded to learn she has a rare gift for clever wordplay with specific rhythms that express emotions vibrantly. No, it's not a refrain of sheer brilliance like "You say potato, I say po-tah-to, let's call the whole thing off," but then what is?

The issues, as the movie unspools, turn out to be as much professional as romantic. Indeed, yes, Sophie and Alex fall in love, and each of the performers has an undeniable adorability factor, but most of the issues are professional. I don't think the ending is up to the rest of the movie, but Grant and Barrymore are great together, and the movie has both zing and song.

-- Stephen Hunter (Feb. 14, 2007)

Contains sexual innuendo.