Albert Brooks wrote, directed, and starred in this not very funny comedy, so he has no one to blame but himself. Brooks plays Steven Phillips, a Hollywood screenwriter whose career has stalled because his scripts have lost their edge. His more successful Oscar-winning buddy (Jeff Bridges) lets him in on a little secret: His success is due to the intervention of a Muse, one of Zeus' nine daughters, who is alive in the person of a beautiful young woman (Sharon Stone). So Phillips engages her services too.
But he gets a lot more than he bargained for, because the Muse is a very demanding young woman, and she expects Phillips to satisfy all her very expensive whims. Phillips very unbelievably proceeds to do so, and when his wife (Andie MacDowell) gets wind of it, she is quite displeased.
I won't describe any more of the plot developments. Suffice it to say, more stuff happens, getting more and more ridiculous and unbelievable. Nothing about it makes sense, even on its own terms. The worst part is, it's not very funny. Brooks makes a lot of wisecracks, and a few of them are funny, but mostly we're just expected to get our jollies from what a hapless shnook he is, and that soon grows tiresome.
As for his acting, it's serviceable, but just barely. Andie MacDowell is pleasant to look at as always, and her voice has improved significantly from the days when she sounded like a broken coffee grinder, but her acting is still quite mediocre. Jeff Bridges is considerably better, but his part is small, and in any event while he can deliver his lines convincingly, he can't make them sound anything but stupid. Sharon Stone is excellent (and gorgeous) as the exasperatingly self-indulgent Muse, but the writing sinks the whole project. A number of cameos by luminaries like Martin Scorsese, Wolfgang Puck, Jennifer Tilly, Rob Reiner, James Cameron, Lorenzo Lamas, and Cybill Shepherd (all playing themselves) fail to do much to enliven the proceedings.
The music is by Elton John, and it too is merely mediocre, a far cry from his best work.
All in all: Despite a few amusing moments, The Muse is a tawdry time-waster.
But he gets a lot more than he bargained for, because the Muse is a very demanding young woman, and she expects Phillips to satisfy all her very expensive whims. Phillips very unbelievably proceeds to do so, and when his wife (Andie MacDowell) gets wind of it, she is quite displeased.
I won't describe any more of the plot developments. Suffice it to say, more stuff happens, getting more and more ridiculous and unbelievable. Nothing about it makes sense, even on its own terms. The worst part is, it's not very funny. Brooks makes a lot of wisecracks, and a few of them are funny, but mostly we're just expected to get our jollies from what a hapless shnook he is, and that soon grows tiresome.
As for his acting, it's serviceable, but just barely. Andie MacDowell is pleasant to look at as always, and her voice has improved significantly from the days when she sounded like a broken coffee grinder, but her acting is still quite mediocre. Jeff Bridges is considerably better, but his part is small, and in any event while he can deliver his lines convincingly, he can't make them sound anything but stupid. Sharon Stone is excellent (and gorgeous) as the exasperatingly self-indulgent Muse, but the writing sinks the whole project. A number of cameos by luminaries like Martin Scorsese, Wolfgang Puck, Jennifer Tilly, Rob Reiner, James Cameron, Lorenzo Lamas, and Cybill Shepherd (all playing themselves) fail to do much to enliven the proceedings.
The music is by Elton John, and it too is merely mediocre, a far cry from his best work.
All in all: Despite a few amusing moments, The Muse is a tawdry time-waster.