I love it and I own it!

It's hard for me to decide whether I liked the music best or the characters!

The music was ALL good in my opinion but none of it really wowed me as much as the song that Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis sang together, Crusin'. It is one of those that I get in my head and can't get out. I love it and I love their voices together and the mood they created with it. I did not know before I saw this movie what a good voice Gwyneth has. Huey Lewis is a singer I was not familiar with before I saw this movie, but I thought he was entertaining enough. A peppering of good music in a movie can usually make me endure a less-than-perfect story line, but I enjoyed the story too.

Actually, there were three separate stories going on for most of the movie. They kind of merged at the end of the movie in a grand-prize karaoke event in Omaha, Nebraska.

The story that I enjoyed the most involved a corporate salesman named Todd. Todd is played by Paul Giamatti. His character just mesmerized me. I couldn't wait to see what he'd do next. He starts the movie as an overworked, over-traveled, overstressed salesman who keeps his family in the lap of luxury but who gets no thanks or recognition from them when he comes home from one of his exhausting business trips. They barely acknowledge him and they can't be bothered to take a momentary break from their video games (the kids) and Internet (his wife) to say "hello." His unappreciative family, coupled with the fact that he is ashamed of the fact that his company is taking over one of the last remaining breeding grounds for a certain type of nearly-extinct turtles for the sake of building a recreational water park, kind of make him snap. He wanders out the front door of his house in a daze. As he leaves, his wife asks where he is going and he tells her he's going out for a pack of cigarettes. "But you don't smoke!" she calls out. She doesn't see him for days.

The next thing you know, he's trying to check into a hotel with his "frequent flyer" credits, another of his ongoing frustrations with his corporate life, since he can never seem to find anyone who will accept them. He wanders into the hotel bar and a pretty local goads him into performing a karaoke song. He sings, "Hello It's Me." I thought it was such a cute performance.

The pressures of his job and family become something he's had all of that he can take. He runs to the freedom that a life on the road seeking out karaoke opportunities seems to offer.

Along the way, he picks up a hitchhiker. The hitchhiker is Reggie, played by Andre Braugher. Reggie is an ex-con whose character may be a little hard to believe. He is hardened enough to have just held a man at gunpoint who was nice enough to give him a ride, but then gets a ride with Todd and sort of falls into a best friends, "I love you man" and "I want to keep you from throwing your life away" protective persona. He keeps interfering with Todd's out-of-his-mind, but cute and funny, anger about his life and the corporate world and tries to protect him by calling his wife to come get him before he ruins his life completely.

Although Reggie's character isn't quite believable, it is enjoyable and endearing and the performance he gave (singing somehow enhanced?)was very good. He winds up making the karaoke tour with Todd and they sing together several times and make it all the way to Omaha before the police catch up with him. I'll leave the details of that out for those that haven't seen the movie.

Liv and Ricky Dean are played by Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis. The are the operatives in one other of the three main stories. They meet at the funeral of Liv's mother, who is Ricky's ex-wife, and they discover that they are father and daughter. Liv is thrilled. Ricky is not. He is a womanizing karaoke regular who follows the circuit conning "too-big-for-their-britches" locals into thinking that he knows nothing about the karaoke life and can't sing. When they bet against him, he outsings them and cleans up.

Ricky keeps Liv at arm's length even though she has a pie-in-the-sky idea of the bliss that will come from finally getting to know and be with her father. Ricky softens as he learns that Liv not only adds fire to his karaoke cons but she can sing beautifully too.

The turn about he did when he warmed up to her was not in character. She would've definitely cramped his style and if he were real he wouldn't have changed his attitude toward her just because she was a good kid. Oh well, it's the movies.

The third twosome, entertaining but my least favorite, was played by Maria Bello and Scott Speedman--Suzi and Billy. Billy has just caught his partner (they share ownership of a cab) in bed with his live-in girlfriend. He winds up in a bar to drown his sorrow and meets Suzi. She talks him into driving her across country in his cab to make the karaoke scene. She solves their financial dilemmas along the way by offering sexual favors in a matter-of-fact, thank you for shopping with us, kind of way. They become good friends but don't wind up together.

I won't tell you the outcome of the movie, because it really isn't important. For me, the high point came from the music and the character studies. I thought Todd's nervous collapse and resolve to take back the country from the Wendy's and the McDonald's would probably strike a familiar secret wish theme with a lot of people--it did with me!