MUSIC FROM ANOTHER ROOM was written and directed by Charlie Peters: the film script would benefit from some judicious editing. Yet as a light love story it is fast moving despite diversions in the plot and in general gives some fine actors good screen time.
Danny (Jude Law) as a five-year-old lad assisted in the complicated birth of his friend Grace Swan's (Brenda Blethyn) child Anna (Gretchen Mol) and at that moment declared he would marry Anna someday. Twenty five years later Danny returns to Los Angeles from his home in England and encounters the mature Anna who is now engaged to Eric (Jon Tenney), falls in love, returns to the neighbor family of his childhood where Grace greets him with effusive warmth. The family is a dysfunctional one: Anna's sister Nina (Jennifer Tilly) is blind and dependent on Anna; brother Billy (Jeremy Piven) is married to suicidal Irene (Jane Adams); cynical feminist sister Karen (Martha Plimpton) is a man-eater; and the father cares for Grace as she is stricken with a terminal illness. Anna resists Danny, but Danny's influence on the family is like 'music from another room', and results in positive changes in each of the family members: Nina finds love with Jesus (Vincent Laresca), a kitchen worker who introduces Nina to dancing, love, and independence; Grace opens her longing for Anna to experience passion instead of just caring for everyone; and the concept of fate and love and passion is stirred vigorously.
Jude Law is his usual appealing self and makes his role credible. Jennifer Tilly does a fine job realizing Nina and her transformation, and Brenda Blethyn gives us a heady dose of Brenda Blethyn, which is always welcome. There are many problems with the film, the most significant one being Gretchen Mol who doesn't take her character beyond paper doll and certainly doesn't seem an adequate reason for Jude Law's unswerving attention. But as a film it works well enough and does provide some food for thought about the true meaning of love. Grady Harp
Danny (Jude Law) as a five-year-old lad assisted in the complicated birth of his friend Grace Swan's (Brenda Blethyn) child Anna (Gretchen Mol) and at that moment declared he would marry Anna someday. Twenty five years later Danny returns to Los Angeles from his home in England and encounters the mature Anna who is now engaged to Eric (Jon Tenney), falls in love, returns to the neighbor family of his childhood where Grace greets him with effusive warmth. The family is a dysfunctional one: Anna's sister Nina (Jennifer Tilly) is blind and dependent on Anna; brother Billy (Jeremy Piven) is married to suicidal Irene (Jane Adams); cynical feminist sister Karen (Martha Plimpton) is a man-eater; and the father cares for Grace as she is stricken with a terminal illness. Anna resists Danny, but Danny's influence on the family is like 'music from another room', and results in positive changes in each of the family members: Nina finds love with Jesus (Vincent Laresca), a kitchen worker who introduces Nina to dancing, love, and independence; Grace opens her longing for Anna to experience passion instead of just caring for everyone; and the concept of fate and love and passion is stirred vigorously.
Jude Law is his usual appealing self and makes his role credible. Jennifer Tilly does a fine job realizing Nina and her transformation, and Brenda Blethyn gives us a heady dose of Brenda Blethyn, which is always welcome. There are many problems with the film, the most significant one being Gretchen Mol who doesn't take her character beyond paper doll and certainly doesn't seem an adequate reason for Jude Law's unswerving attention. But as a film it works well enough and does provide some food for thought about the true meaning of love. Grady Harp