Charlize Theron plays a manic pixie dream girl who seeks to rescue Keanu Reeves from his own personality in 2001's Sweet November. Set in a sanitised version of San Francisco where everyone seems to wear colour coordinated clothing, it's definitely a softball drama and earns its 15% on Rotten Tomatoes. But it is kind of interesting seeing two action stars play off each other in a romantic feature.
Reeves plays Nelson, a ruthless ad man who has no time for his girlfriend Angelica, played by Lauren Graham in a brief appearance. His vicious tenacity loses him both his job and his girlfriend but luckily he meets the beautiful Sara (Theron) at the DMV. He tries to get her to help him cheat on the driver's written test but the instructor catches her whispering and disqualifies her from taking the test for a month. When Nelson offers to pay her salary for a month as an apology for preventing her from doing any work related driving, she tells him he treats women like whores and instead insists that he move in with her and let her change his whole life. I assume at some point there may have been a screenplay with an intelligible thread of logic.
Sara really likes the colour of rust. In her effort to enforce a regime of free spirited independence, she gives away Nelson's clothes and gives him a hoodie the same rust colour as her scarf and the walls of her apartment. It turns out the hoodie belongs to Jason Isaacs who plays Sara's drag queen neighbour. It's a stock "gay best friend" character (no less stock than Sara's manic pixie dream girl) but I liked Isaacs in the role. I don't know why he doesn't get more lead roles.
Reeves is, well, Reeves. Theron is always great but there's nothing she can do to break out of how generic the screenplay and costumes make her. I suppose if I had to be in a prison camp, I'd prefer the warden to look like her.
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