Opening 16 Jun 2005
Directed by:
Peter Howitt
Writing credits:
Aline Brosh McKenna, Robert Harling
Principal actors:
Pierce Brosnan, Julianne Moore, Michael Sheen, Parker Posey, Frances Fisher
Well-heeled New York divorce attorney Audrey Woods (Julianne Moore) follows
the rules of law. She lives in a fabulous flat where she spends her evenings wolfing junk
food glued to the Weather Channel. Having never lost a case, she figures having the prenup
signed by a trophy wife tossed out will be a piece of cake since at the last minute moneybags
hired an out-of-town shyster. Audrey flounders when the smooth-talking, charmingly dishevelled
Daniel Rafferty (Pierce Brosnan) takes the cake, winning round one of their
preliminary hearings. They are, of course, both smitten but don’t bite. Daniel wins.
Next case.
Audrey faces Daniel again, this time
representing an outlandish rock star (Michael Sheen) whose fashion designer
wife (Parker Posey) demands financial justice for all of his screwing around.
Both parties demand their Irish castle. To settle true ownership, Audrey and Daniel go to
Ireland to interview the castle staff, arriving just in time for a local festival. Local stiff
drinks and dirty dancing end up with Audrey and Daniel married. The morning after hangover
takes them back to New York, only to find their marriage announced in The New York Post.
Rather than face the embarrassment of a very public immediate divorce, they move in together.
Comparisons have been made to Spencer Tracey and
Katherine Hepburn, but Moore and Brosnan have a comic rhythm all their own. Divorce has never
been quite so funny! (Mary Nyiri)
