Classic Movie Review: 'I'll Do Anything'

I'll Do Anything (1994)

Directed by James L. Brooks

Written by James L. Brooks

Starring Nick Nolte, Albert Brooks, Julie Kavner, Whittni Wright, Joely Richardson

Release Date February 4th, 1994

Published February 7th, 1994

On the surface, I'll Do Anything looks like a norm-core, slightly meta, Hollywood pastiche. It's about a struggling actor named Matt Hobbs (Nick Nolte) who unexpectedly gets custody of his 8 year old daughter, Jeannie (Whittni Wright). While she will start a Hollywood career of her own, Matt struggles to find work and remain relevant in a careless, thoughtless, Hollywood where even having a long ago Emmy nomination is not enough to help you find gainful employment in movies or TV.

In its subplots, that normie, been there, done that quality remains as we follow Albert Brooks as a hack movie producer in the Joel Silver-Jerry Bruckheimer vein. Brooks' Burke Adler is obsessed with audience scores and the kind of math that somehow only makes sense to Hollywood executives. Burke's function is to provide a minor villain character but Brooks is far too appealing, even as a bit of a scumbag, for his villain qualities to take hold.

Burke becomes an accidental savior for Matt after Matt bombs in audition for one of Burke's lousy movies. Matt wanted to act, Burke just wanted to fill a role with a competent actor who might be mildly appealing. Their tastes don't go together. But, when Burke's driver fails to show up on time to get him to an important test screening of his latest blockbuster, Burke angrily fires his driver and hires Matt simply because he was standing nearby and has a car.

This leads to Matt finding steady work as Burke's driver and getting the chance to hang around Burke's production office where an attractive script reader, Cathy (Joely Richardson), takes an interest in him. Working for a vulgarian like Burke, Cathy is desperate to make a movie of substance and she starts to think that Matt is exactly the actor she needs for the lead role in this prestige drama. That is, if he proves to be sexy enough. In a scene that is intended as the dramatic crux of the movie, Cathy has a chance to cast Matt but fails when Burke challenges her on whether women would want too have sex with Matt, the standard Burke has set for whether he will make the movie or not.

Lingering in the margins of the story is Nan (Julie Kavner), a test screening coordinator who begins a sexual relationship with Burke. For reasons we don't ever see on screen, Nan believes there may be something good deep down inside Burke. This however, goes entirely against the way Brooks plays the character as an irredeemable charlatan, a proud proprietor of the lowest common denominator for whom other people are merely facets of his leading man story. It's what we today refer to as Main Character Syndrome. Everyone else in Burke's life is an NPC and if they try and be more than that, he will get rid of them. That Brooks makes this funny is a testament to his status as an all time great in the world of comedy.

But all of that that I just mentioned is not really the story of I'll Do Anything. The reality is that there really isn't much of a story at all. Nolte's Matt gets custody of his precocious daughter and learns how to be a single dad but he wasn't that bad of a bad guy to begin with so his journey isn't very interesting. His romance with Joely Richardson is a complete disaster. The two have no chemistry and their abortive sex scene in the film is deeply unsexy. Eventually, she becomes something of a villain in the movie but her character is so underwritten and surface level that it doesn't really land as villainy, it barely qualifies as a character trait. She's merely weak willed.

But all of this pales in comparison to the story behind the scenes of I'll Do Anything. As I mentioned last week, in my review of Car 54 Where Are You, another of 1994's notable failures, I'll Do Anything was the second of two movies that began their journey to the big screen as lavish movie musicals only to have all of the music and musical numbers cut out of the movie just before release. Yes, a Hollywood satire starring, of all people, croaking, unglamorous, Nick Nolte, was first intended to be a singing and dancing extravaganza.

Music by Carole King, Sinead O'Connor and Prince was commissioned, with Prince writing the majority of the music, at a lavish cost. Legendary choreographer, Twyla Tharp was brought on to teach the non-singing, non-dancing cast, how to hoof it up. It was a lavish, $40 million dollar affair. And then, in an irony far funnier than any of the jokes in I'll Do Anything at the expense of Brooks' movie producer, the film tested poorly. A movie that actually featured a song about movie test scores, failed in testing and had to be rewritten and reshot at the last minute.

Indeed, there is a musical cut of I'll Do Anything that is now a piece of Lost Media. Back in 2020, UK's Independent reported that there was going to be a midnight screening online of the musical cut of I'll Do Anything. However, that showing was shutdown at the last minute by Prince's estate. Apparently, the singer retained the rights to the film soundtrack and thus his estate has the ability to keep the musical under wraps. Will we ever see the musical I'll Do Anything? Only Prince's estate knows for sure. For now, all we have is a damp squib of a theatrical cut which has minor charm and little else.

I'll Do Anything is the subject of the newest episode of the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast spinoff, I Hate Critics 1994. Each week, myself and my co-hosts Gen-Z'er M.J and Gen-X'er Amy, talk about a movie that was released 30 years ago that same week. It's a fascinating glimpse into the past and how movies and culture have shifted in just the past three decades. You can listen to the I Hate Critics 1994 podcast on the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast feed, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Find my archive of more than 20 years and nearly 2000 movie reviews at SeanattheMovies.Blogspot.com. Find my modern review archive on my Vocal Profile, linked here. Follow me on Twitter at PodcastSean. Follow the archive blog on Twitter at SeanattheMovies. Listen to me talk about movies on the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast. If you have enjoyed what you have read, consider subscribing to my writing on Vocal. If you'd like to support my writing, you can do so by making a monthly pledge or by leaving a one-time tip. Thanks!