Keanu A-Z News Reports
Saturday, February 17, 2001
In the mood
[Calgary Sun 17/02/2001]
Keanu and Charlize re-team for big-screen romance
Three years ago, Keanu Reeves was feeling particularly romantic.
He immediately began searching, not for the right girl, but for the right movie.
The result of his search is Sweet November, the story of a wildly free-spirited woman and the man she lavishes her love and attention on for one month.
It’s a remake of the 1968 film that starred Sandy Dennis and Anthony Newley as the most mismatched of lovers.
The updated version has Reeves playing Nelson Moss a crude, self-important advertising executive and Charlize Theron as Sara Deever, the kooky animal activist who virtually kidnaps him.
Sara wants Nelson to see just how empty his life really is.
She wants to awaken his repressed romantic nature.
“I was actively looking for a romantic comedy. I hadn’t done one since A Walk in the Clouds. I had a feeling it was time to put a little romance into my career,” recalls Reeves.
His manager Erwin Stoff had purchased the rights to Sweet November years earlier and had a new screenplay by Kurt Voelker.
Reeves liked the project enough to go to Warner Bros. and ask them to let him make it.
Part of the deal was to make Warner’s football movie The Replacements first.
Reeves brought the film to Theron who’d played his wife in The Devil’s Advocate.
“Charlize and I already had a comfort level that I knew would allow us to bring an authentic, intimate investment to the love story.
"It’s not essential for me to have this kind of connection with a co-star.
"We can pretend, fake and simulate. That’s what actors are paid to do, but I’d rather it be authentic and it was with Charlize and me.”
Through the relationship, Sara completely changes Nelson’s life.
“I’ve had relationships that have been very nurturing, but I’ve never had a Sara Deever in my life.
“But I really dig romance. It’s one of the most exhilarating things I’ve ever experienced.”
Theron was thrilled Reeves asked her to play Sara.
“It’s not the kind of character Hollywood thinks of me for. You wear enough gowns and get on enough magazine covers and some people think that you can only do glamour,” says Theron.
For most of the film, Sara wears bizarre mismatched outfits.
The first thing she does to Nelson is take away his suits forcing him to wear T-shirts and worn jeans.
“I loved that Sara wears baggy pants and chunky shoes. That’s really much more who I am than the girl on those magazine covers.”
Though Sara does change Nelson, Theron says she shies away from such a notion in her own relationships.
“When you get into a serious relationship, you see the potential and the possibilities in the other person. The most you should ever try to do is make your partner aware of these possibilities.”
For the past three years, Theron has been dating Stephan Jenkins, the frontman of Third Eye Blind.
“Romance is very different for me than it is for Sara. She loves the big moments.
"I prefer what I call non moments. I’m not high on planning. Simplicity is always more interesting and inviting for me.”
Theron does like romantic movies, especially those that give her a big cry.
“I absolutely love Once Around. Holly Hunter falling in love with the older man played by Richard Dreyfuss.
“I saw it when I was 16. I desperately wanted to meet an older man.
“I still think older guys are hot.
“I’ve never been big on age. I don’t place importance on it at all in a relationship. The only place I draw the line is at 17-year-old boys because I’ve been told it’s illegal,” she jokes.
Theron hails from South Africa, where she says her name was a constant source of amusement for classmates.
“No one had heard the name before.
“That’s certainly not the case any more.
“My mother went back to South Africa recently and discovered that every fourth baby girl is being named Charlize.
“I’m starting my own little nation. I guess that’s what comes of having a little celebrity.”
Reeves gets romantic
[BBC News 17/02/2001]
Reeves wanted a "Hepburn-Tracey" feel to the film
Keanu Reeves arrives in US cinemas this weekend playing the romantic lead in the tearjerker Sweet November.
This is a big romantic role for Reeves, who has had a diverse career, but is probably best known for his action blockbusters The Matrix and Speed.
In Sweet November Reeves plays Nelson Moss, a driven and selfish San Francisco advertising executive whose life is changed when he meets and falls in love with his polar opposite, a bohemian woman portrayed by Charlize Theron.
Reeves definitely sought out a romantic role, even asking his manager if he could find him a project. He says of Sweet November: "We wanted to have a Hepburn-Tracey feel to it, a classicism, opposites attract feeling."
Reeves deliberately sought out a romantic role
Sara Deever, the woman with whom Nelson Moss falls in love, is a bewildering character.
Every month she takes on a new boyfriend as a project. Her aim is not to fall in love, but to act as a spiritual mentor to her monthly partners as she tries to solve their problems.
Her motivation is to maintain a sense of being in charge at a time when her life is spinning out of control.
Without giving too much of the plot away, Sweet November is in the tradition of movies like Love Story, where romantic bliss is thwarted by terminal disease.
Therapy
Reeves explains that Nelson's involvement with Theron's character brings about profound change because "she's a very passionate woman, a very strong-willed woman".
"We fall in love, which is really good therapy," he says.
Sweet November is a remake of a 1968 film of the same title that starred Anthony Newley and Sandy Dennis.
Irish filmmaker Pat O'Connor, whose credits include Cal, A Month In The Country and Dancing at Lughnasa, directs this updated version.
O'Connor is talented, but his new picture doesn't quite work.
Partly it's a problem with casting; there is a lack of sizzle between the leads.
Reeves comes over as wooden, and Charlize Theron, although she tries hard, is too glamorous for a character who is more akin to an overgrown hippy.
Reeves is slightly miffed that a moment in a scene he has with Theron in the bathtub was cut so the film could get an American PG-13 rating, enabling it to be seen by teenagers without an adult in the US.
As Reeves describes it, he and Theron are in the bathtub having an intimate conversation.
He says: "The bit that got cut is that at the end of the scene I go under the bubbles and she starts to laugh. That got cut!"
Daring work
Whether it's playing a street hustler in Gus Van Sant's 1991 picture My Own Private Idaho, or more recently as a wife-abusing redneck in The Gift, Reeves has often tackled daring and non-commercial work.
Part of a bath scene was cut
He almost bristles at the notion that his action roles are less demanding than his character driven parts.
"There is acting in action pictures, there is nothing different about the work that I have to do to understand a character to bring it alive," he says.
"Thomas Anderson in The Matrix is a character part. The character in Speed, I feel, is a character part. There is no other kind of part."
Unfortunately in Sweet November, Reeves doesn't quite cut it as a romantic leading man.
But the film shows he has grown up, he looks less boyish and more mature in this picture.
It's not that he hasn't got potential because Reeves definitely has charisma and in a different, more unconventional movie he could very well flourish as an intriguing romantic lead.
His Matrix fans will no doubt be pleased to learn that the actor is already in training for a sequel that will go into production at the end of March.
Reeves gets romantic
[BBC News 17/02/2001]
Reeves wanted a "Hepburn-Tracey" feel to the film
Keanu Reeves arrives in US cinemas this weekend playing the romantic lead in the tearjerker Sweet November.
This is a big romantic role for Reeves, who has had a diverse career, but is probably best known for his action blockbusters The Matrix and Speed.
In Sweet November Reeves plays Nelson Moss, a driven and selfish San Francisco advertising executive whose life is changed when he meets and falls in love with his polar opposite, a bohemian woman portrayed by Charlize Theron.
Reeves definitely sought out a romantic role, even asking his manager if he could find him a project. He says of Sweet November: "We wanted to have a Hepburn-Tracey feel to it, a classicism, opposites attract feeling."
Reeves deliberately sought out a romantic role
Sara Deever, the woman with whom Nelson Moss falls in love, is a bewildering character.
Every month she takes on a new boyfriend as a project. Her aim is not to fall in love, but to act as a spiritual mentor to her monthly partners as she tries to solve their problems.
Her motivation is to maintain a sense of being in charge at a time when her life is spinning out of control.
Without giving too much of the plot away, Sweet November is in the tradition of movies like Love Story, where romantic bliss is thwarted by terminal disease.
Therapy
Reeves explains that Nelson's involvement with Theron's character brings about profound change because "she's a very passionate woman, a very strong-willed woman".
"We fall in love, which is really good therapy," he says.
Sweet November is a remake of a 1968 film of the same title that starred Anthony Newley and Sandy Dennis.
Irish filmmaker Pat O'Connor, whose credits include Cal, A Month In The Country and Dancing at Lughnasa, directs this updated version.
O'Connor is talented, but his new picture doesn't quite work.
Partly it's a problem with casting; there is a lack of sizzle between the leads.
Reeves comes over as wooden, and Charlize Theron, although she tries hard, is too glamorous for a character who is more akin to an overgrown hippy.
Reeves is slightly miffed that a moment in a scene he has with Theron in the bathtub was cut so the film could get an American PG-13 rating, enabling it to be seen by teenagers without an adult in the US.
As Reeves describes it, he and Theron are in the bathtub having an intimate conversation.
He says: "The bit that got cut is that at the end of the scene I go under the bubbles and she starts to laugh. That got cut!"
Daring work
Whether it's playing a street hustler in Gus Van Sant's 1991 picture My Own Private Idaho, or more recently as a wife-abusing redneck in The Gift, Reeves has often tackled daring and non-commercial work.
Part of a bath scene was cut
He almost bristles at the notion that his action roles are less demanding than his character driven parts.
"There is acting in action pictures, there is nothing different about the work that I have to do to understand a character to bring it alive," he says.
"Thomas Anderson in The Matrix is a character part. The character in Speed, I feel, is a character part. There is no other kind of part."
Unfortunately in Sweet November, Reeves doesn't quite cut it as a romantic leading man.
But the film shows he has grown up, he looks less boyish and more mature in this picture.
It's not that he hasn't got potential because Reeves definitely has charisma and in a different, more unconventional movie he could very well flourish as an intriguing romantic lead.
His Matrix fans will no doubt be pleased to learn that the actor is already in training for a sequel that will go into production at the end of March.
Friday, February 16, 2001
Stilted romance
[Calgary Sun 16/02/2001]
Charlize Theron and Keanu Reeves star in "Sweet November".
Few sparks fly in bland love story
Sara Deever the heroine of Sweet November, saves abandoned pets and those targeted for medical experiments. She lets them stay at her San Francisco apartment for a few weeks while she finds them a new home.
Not content with lavishing such affection and attention on forlorn puppies, Sara tries the same with men.
Each month she selects a new man who she feels needs liberating and makes him her pet project.
She takes him into her cozy little apartment, pampers and loves him for a month and then turns him loose newly invigorated.
Sweet November started its life as a stage play around the time The Owl and the Pussycat was such a huge hit on Broadway.
In The Owl, a prostitute reformed an uptight writer.
In Sweet November, a kooky free-spirited woman tries to reform an uptight workaholic.
When Sweet November was turned into a film, Sandy Dennis played the crusader with a mission and a tragic secret.
It was as difficult for the audience as it was for her subject played by Anthony Newley to be won over by Dennis.
She was an actress more noted for her quirky demeanor than her stunning beauty.
This is certainly not the case with Charlize Theron, who plays Sara as a hold over from San Francisco’s hippy culture.
When she invites workaholic ad executive Nelson Moss (Keanu Reeves) to spend a month in her bed, it doesn’t seem like such a bad proposition to anyone except Nelson.
Of course, he’ll eventually agree to become her November project, so the first 30 minutes of the film are superfluous though admittedly rambunctious.
Perhaps if Hollywood hadn’t churned out Autumn in New York just last year, the plot twist in Sweet November might not be so obvious.
Let’s just say that Nelson isn’t the only one with a time limit looming over him.
As its title promises, this is a sweet, saccharine love story.
It’s meant to tickle funny bone just long enough to make those tugs at the heart strings all the more poignant.
It worked 35 years ago because both Dennis and Newley were skilled at playing life’s losers.
The fact that they find happiness in each other, only to have it ripped away untimely, was sweetly affecting.
Theron and Reeves are hardly losers.
The camera loves both of them and they know how to pose and seduce it but that’s about all the emotional range they have.
Asking two notoriously wooden actors to try to create romantic chemistry is cruel to both the performers and the audience.
There are so few sparks between Reeves and Theron that it’s little wonder the affair never even smolders, let alone catches fire.
This is San Francisco, so it’s obligatory that Sara have a gay neighbor who is also her best friend.
This cliche falls to British actor Jason Isaacs, who was so hateful as Mel Gibson’s foe in The Patriot.
This Sweet November is a belated valentine for lovers of soap operas.
