Reel Critics

Clem Dominguez

“Life or something like it” is the story of how one person chooses to

change their life when confronted with the news of their imminent death.

Many people in real life face this situation every day so the premise is

not so unusual. What made this story interesting is that our main

character is given one week to live by a homeless psychic (Tony

Shalhoub), not a doctor. It just so happens that this psychic is almost

always right about his predictions.

Angelina Jolie plays Lanie Kerrigan, a Marilyn Monroe clone who works

as a news reporter for a small Seattle TV station. Lanie believes her

life is perfect. And why not, she is engaged to the star of the Seattle

Mariners baseball team (Christian Cane), has a great job, great friends

and is beautiful. Best of all she’s up for a network promotion for a big

New York Station.

Her perfect life starts to unravel when she is forced to work with her

former cameraman Pete (Edward Burns).

The story was cleverly conceived and kept me interested until the end.

While some of it was predictable, that didn’t hurt the too much. There

were a few good surprises and a very funny scene where Lanie loses it

while interviewing a group of bus drivers on strike.

Jolie was very convincing as the egocentric TV news reporter, although

it wasn’t one of her most challenging rolls. I felt Burns was a little

off as the ornery cameraman. For some reason I just didn’t find him that

believable, maybe it was his attempt at a tough guy accent. The standout

was the psychic. Shalhoub really played the part of the cynical grubby

homeless person well, especially when he kept demanding more money for

each prediction. The end was a little disappointing as a few issues were

left unresolved.

The movie is worth seeing, not a must see, but still worth the price

of admission. On my rating scale I give it a B-.

* CLEM DOMINGUEZ, 57, is an aspiring screenwriter and film fanatic.