Beautiful Joe (2000)

I saw this film on TV, and though its bad sides, it's a quite enjoyable romantic comedy. I'm not a fan of romcoms in general, so any such film that I can stand must be pretty good. Of course, a big part of the reason are the leads, since I like both Billy Connelly and Sharon Stone, who, in their different ways, are not the typical sugary romcom stars, such as Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant etc. (A film with any of the mentioned is sure to make me want to throw up.) One of the setbacks is that I often get annoyed by actors doing a Southern accent, and it was no different here, but I got used to it after a while.

However, the performances are uneven. The plot with the bad guys is very bad. The mobsters are very unconvicing, and the guy from Ally McBeal is really awful. He was obviously trying to shed the good guy image and show he has 'range', but he's cartoonish and over-the-top. His character really hurt the film the most.

On the other hand, Connelly, Stone and the kids are fine, but I want to point out another performance that impressed me the most. Another TV face, not very famous - Roger Cross, who played the aliens Joshua/Cain in SF series 'First Wave', shows up in one scene, for about 2 or 3 minutes, as Stone's ex who's in jail, and proves that there are no small roles. If anything impressed me in this film, it's that scene - which proves you don't need much screen time or many lines to make a memorable character.