| Life or Something Like It | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Stephen Herek |
| Screenplay by | John Scott Shepherd Dana Stevens |
| Story by | John Scott Shepherd |
| Produced by | John Davis Arnon Milchan Toby Jaffe Chi-Li Wong |
| Starring | Angelina Jolie Edward Burns Tony Shalhoub Stockard Channing |
| Cinematography | Stephen H. Burum |
| Edited by | Trudy Ship |
| Music by | David Newman |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 103 minutes |
| Countries | United States Poland |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $40 million[1] |
| Box office | $16.9 million |
Life or Something Like It is a 2002 Americanromanticcomedy-drama film directed byStephen Herek. StarringAngelina Jolie, most of the film was shot in theSeattle area. The original music score was composed byDavid Newman.
The plot focuses ontelevisionreporter Lanie Kerrigan and her quest to find meaning in her life. The film was released on April 26, 2002, received mostly negative reviews and recovered less than half of its budget.
Lanie Kerrigan, a successful reporter for a Seattle television station, interviews self-proclaimedprophet Jack to find out if he really can predict football scores. He not only predicts the exact score and that it willhail the next morning, but also that Lanie will die in seven days, on the following Thursday.
When Jack's first two prophecies come true, Lanie panics and again meets with him to ask for another prophecy to test him again. Jack tells her that there will be a relatively significantearthquake inSan Francisco at 9:06 am, which also happens. Now Lanie is convinced that she is going to die, so reevaluates her life.
Lanie tries to find consolation in her famousbaseball player boyfriend Cal Cooper and in her family, but there is little there. Her lifelong ambition of appearing on network television begins to look like a distant dream. In her desperation, she commits professional blunders but ends up finding support in an unlikely source: her archenemy, the cameraman Pete Scanlon, with whom she once hadcasual sex.
Pete introduces Lanie to a new approach to life: to live every moment of her life to the fullest and to do whatever she had always wanted to do. She moves in with him for a day, and he introduces her to his son Tommy, who lives with his mother. They spend a whole day together with the boy.
That night Lanie and Pete sleep together for the second time. The next day Lanie receives an opportunity for her dream job inNew York. She asks Pete to come with her, but he declines, telling her that her appetite for success and fame will never end. Lanie leaves for New York.
Pete meets Jack and tells him how wrong he is, as Lanie got the job which Jack foretold she would not get. However, Jack explains that he was right, as Lanie will never be able to do the job because she will die before it begins. He also gives a prophecy of the death of a famous former baseball player in a plane crash. When Pete receives the news of the player's death, he tries to call Lanie to warn her. When he cannot reach her, he flies to New York.
Lanie - unconcerned with Jack's prophecy - interviews her idol, famous media personality Deborah Connors. Lanie realizes how petty the opening questions are, so improvises, sharing a heartfelt moment with Deborah live on air. The interview receives hugeratings. The network immediately offers her a position, but Lanie declines, realizing she wants a life with Pete in Seattle.
As Lanie leaves the studio, a police officer gets into a conflict with a man nearby, who shoots a bullet into the air. Pete tries to warn her from across the street, but she is caught in the crossfire. Lanie dies in the operating theater but is revived. When she wakes up, Pete confesses he has loved her since the first time he saw her, and Lanie tells him she loves him too.
Later, Pete, Lanie, and Tommy watch Cal's baseball game, while Lanie (in a voiceover) says that one part of her has died — the part that did not know how to live life.
The majority of the movie was shot on location inSeattle, Washington, although portions were also filmed indowntown Vancouver, British Columbia.[2] The TV station in the movie, KQMO, was actually real-life Seattle TV stationKOMO-TV (the KOMO logo was altered on the set of KOMO 4 News and on several of KOMO's news vehicles, in addition to a few mic flags).[2][3]
Several KOMO personalities make cameo appearances; among them are longtime anchorsDan Lewis and Margo Myers (the latter moved toKIRO-TV in January 2005), weather anchor andFront Runners hostSteve Pool, and weekend weather anchor Theron Zahn.[4] Other KOMO personalities who made brief cameo appearances include People Helper John Sharify and reporter Michelle Esteban.[4]
Additionally, Vancouver news anchorsPamela Martin andJill Krop, at the time both employed withBCTV, appeared briefly in scenes shot in the BCTV studios.[4]
The film received generally unfavorable reviews. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes,Life or Something Like It has an overall rating of 28% based on 121 reviews, with an average score of 4.5 out of 10.[5] The site's critics consensus reads: "Though Jolie is appealing,Life or Something Like It is too contrived and predictable to convincingly convey its message of stopping to smell the roses."[5]Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 31 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[6] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[7]
Jolie's performance in the film earned her aGolden Raspberry Award nomination forWorst Actress.
The film was acommercial and financial loss, grossing only $16,872,671 against its $40,000,000 budget.[1]
