Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'The Rewrite'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Sometimes in life, when we plunge ourselves into the things we love and work hard to maintain the dream...we lose sight of so much. By being in the trenches every single day we can only see what is in front of us and when that finally happens, we forget why we started this journey in the first place and it usually takes us down an ugly road. 

Suddenly what we love has become a chore instead of a passion. The joy it once brought us has been replaced by monotony and despite our best efforts to maintain the status quo, we stumble and fall and sometimes those little or big failures are the only way to get us back on track and that's exactly what is explored in the motion picture, The Rewrite.

Keith Michaels was once the toast of Hollywood. His Oscar winning screenplay for Paradise Misplaced put him among Tinsel Town's elite, but my how the times have changed. Everything he wrote after that film was a commercial and critical flop and well...finding work has become quite the challenge. At the end of his rope he is offered the chance to head out to a college in New York to teach screenwriting and he will quickly discover that sharing the wonder of his craft will change his life forever. 

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This is another one of those motion pictures that completely flew under the radar for me because I didn't manage to catch this little gem until it arrived on cable and boy am I glad I watched it. This is a charming film to say the least, one that indeed addresses everything I talked about a moment ago because that's exactly what Keith Michaels is going through in this film. He is jaded by the one thing he is good at in this life, and he is driven by the weight of his former success rather than enjoying the fact he made it in a tough business and it makes for a fascinating story that just so happens to throw a little romance in for good measure. 

But it is also a film filled to the brim with a talented cast, led by Hugh Grant as Keith and well...he shines in this film and we get to watch him go on a complete journey and he is joined on that adventure by Marisa Tomei and the always delightful J.K. Simmons. And it really is the journey that matters in this story because it truly is wonderful to see Keith go from a man who is taking this job for the paycheck to a man who once again finds the purpose and the magic of what he is truly good at.  

This is simply a feel-good film, filled with good laughs, genuinely touching moments and it's one that I have a feeling not enough of us have seen. It looks like this one got a limited theatrical release and that's just a shame because it's simple message and smooth delivery make this motion picture a surprisingly uplifting affair and one that you find yourself watching again just to be reminded that it is okay to fail in life, to always stay true to yourself and to never forget the reasons as to why you do what you do.  

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