A Life Less Ordinary
A comedy for anyone who’s ever been in danger…of falling in love.
Ewan McGregor as Robert Lewis
Directed by: Danny Boyle
Written by: John Hodge
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Holly Hunter
Released: 24 October 1997 [UK], 24 October 1997 [USA]
Genre: Drama / Romance / Comedy
Budget: $12,000,000 (estimated)
Filming Dates: 30 September 1996 – 5 December 1996
More Information: Internet Movie Database
Synopsis
In Los Angeles, the janitor and aspirant writer of trash novels, Robert Lewis, is fired and replace by a robot. He goes to his boss’ office, has an argument with him and demands his job back. When the security guards surround him, Robert abducts the boss’ daughter, Celine Naville, to escape from the building. Celine convinces Robert to request a large amount of ransom money from her father. Meanwhile, fallen angels O’Reilly and Jackson are assigned by their chief, Gabriel, to help Robert and Celine to fall in love with each other.
Images
Trailer
Trivia
Both Holly Hunter and Ewan McGregor play the French horn.
The scene where Robert almost hits O’Reilly who is laying in the road, was shot backwards and then reversed in post production.
The overhead shot when Robert is pulling the bag of money along the road with rope is computer generated.
Quotes
Robert: Of course it’s obvious, guys, it’s a trash novel. You buy it at the airport, you take it on holiday.
Robert: Right, you daughter! I have your asshole here!
Jackson: What the hell did you do to her?
Robert: I punched her in the face.
Jackson: Oh, you punched her in the face. She’s half your size and you punch her in the face?
Robert: She had a gun!
Jackson: Oh, she had a gun! So that makes everything all right, does it?
Robert: No, I’m not saying it makes everything all right. I’m just trying to explain to you that for all I knew, she could have been a karate expert or something.
Jackson: With a broken arm? WITH A BROKEN ARM?
Robert: O.K., I’m sorry.
Robert: Are you taking me to a hospital? Because I don’t want to die in a hospital.
Celine: I’m not going to take you to a hospital.
Robert: WHAT? What do you mean you’re not taking me to a hospital? I demand to be taken to a hospital!
Celine: What’s wrong?
Robert: What’s wrong, you crazy bitch, is I thought you were gonna shoot me! THAT’S what’s wrong!
Celine: So you’re telling me that successful relationships… are made in heaven? Notfounded on the daily practicality… of two people being prepared… to tolerate the imperfections of one another?
Robert: It’s not successful relationships, Celine. It’s love. And it comes from a strange and wonderful place… that we don’t know about.
Celine: So you also reject the idea… that love is merely an emotional adaptation… to a physical necessity?
Robert: Completely.
Celine: Are you serious?
Robert: Fate intervenes in people’s lives. In ours, for instance. Fate brought us together. It kept us together. We were destined for one another.
Celine: Fate had a pretty strange way of making its point.
Robert: But that’s part of the beauty of it. It’s inexplicable, unpredictable… and absolutely beyond control or understanding.
Celine: But you nearly got killed.
Robert: But I didn’t… and here we are.
Celine: Do you have any substantial evidence to back all this?
Robert: None at all.
Celine: And you realize that it’s absurd and irrational?
Robert: I know that.
Celine: Then why do you believe it?
Robert: Because, Celine, I’m a dreamer.
Celine: Well, I guess that makes two of us.
Robert: Are you ready?
Celine: As I’ll ever be.
Robert: Then let’s go.
Awards & Nominations
Won – Empire Award for Best British Actor
Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Dance Sequence (shared with Cameron Diaz)
Perfect Sense (2011)
Haywire (2011)
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011)
The Impossible (2011)
Jack the Giant Killer (2013)
