The Rewrite
Short description
Keith Michaels won an Oscar for a screenplay fifteen years ago and has not written anything worthwhile since. Divorced, short of money and approaching fifty, the former Hollywood success takes the only job his agent can find: teaching screenwriting at a small university in Binghamton, upstate New York. He arrives reluctantly, more interested in chasing his own comfort than in his students, and begins an affair with Karen, one of the women in his class. His plans run into trouble through his clashes with a colleague, and his outlook shifts when he meets Holly Carpenter, a single mother juggling several jobs while she studies.
The Rewrite is a comedy directed by Marc Lawrence, who also wrote the screenplay. It is the fourth of the five features he has directed, arriving between Did You Hear About the Morgans? in 2009 and Noelle in 2019, and it reunites him with Hugh Grant, who plays Keith. Marisa Tomei appears as Holly, with Bella Heathcote, J.K. Simmons, Chris Elliott and Allison Janney among a credited cast of forty-four.
Released in 2014, the film earned a modest 4 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.3 out of 10 from around 24,000 votes, and on TMDB 6 out of 10 from roughly 650 votes. A critics' rating of 5.6 out of 10 from 58 reviews places it below the audience scores, though the gap is small.
What's left behind the scenes
- Hugh Grant’s character, Keith Michaels, watches online as Grant delivers a speech in 1995 upon receiving a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Mike Newell’s comedy “Four Weddings and a Funeral” (1993). The speech itself was re-recorded for the film according to a fictional plot, which is the subject of “Ticket to Paradise.”
- The film was shot, among other places, in Binghamton, home to a state research university where the film’s director and screenwriter, Mark Lawrence, once studied. Some elements of the script are based on his memories of his college years.
- The main character worries about his car being stolen, and Holly, played by Marisa Tomei, tries to comfort him, referring, among other things, to the car’s make – Hyundai. Between 2011 and 2022, this manufacturer released several models with immobilizers (an electronic anti-theft device).
- When the character Allison Jenny complains that students compare her to Elinor from Jane Austen's novel adaptation, "Sense and Sensibility", Kate replies that she knows the character. In 1995, Ang Lee directed a film of the same name, starring Hugh Grant as Edward, with Elinor being in love with him.
- The students are watching one of the episodes (the first episode of the fifth season) of the series "The Twilight Zone" (1959-1964). The script was written by Rod Serling, and Gig Young starred in the leading role.
- When the character played by Marisa Tomei mentions the book "Late Bloomers" (about how it's never too late to succeed) in a conversation with the protagonist, she states that Alan Rickman got his first film role at the age of 48. In reality, Rickman's film debut was in John McTiernan's action film "Die Hard" in 1988, and he was 42 years old when the film was released.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
