Laws of Attraction Movie Trailer. Like Daniel, Audrey is at the top of her game. “She lives for work,” says four-time Oscar nominee Julianne Moore (The Hours, Far from Heaven, Boogie Nights), who plays Audrey. “She doesn’t have much of a social life, and when she meets Daniel, he poses a real challenge to her.”
Director Peter Howitt (Sliding Doors) agrees, noting, “It’s a clash of opposites. They come from different schools of thought. Audrey Woods follows the rules and doesn’t lose a case because she’s so good. Daniel Rafferty comes along, and he is this forgetful, slightly Columbo-like slacker. But with him, what you see is not what you get.”
“Daniel is very laid back,” comments producer David T. Friendly. “The first time you see him he’s asleep in the courtroom. Pierce can very convincingly play that kind of laconic presence, which nevertheless hides a cunning and acute intelligence.’
Both attorneys find themselves on opposite sides of a contentious divorce between a rock star (Michael Sheen) and his fiery fashion designer wife (Parker Posey). The bone of contention between the two is an Irish castle to which each thinks it rightfully belongs, which leads Audrey and Daniel to travel to Ireland to take depositions on behalf of their respective clients.
“Ireland has a reputation and reason for being a wonderful, very beautiful and romantic country,” comments Julianne Moore. “I think there’s an element of romanticism that Audrey and Daniel absorb while they’re there.”
“They get sucked into a big Irish festival,” explains Peter Howitt, “when their resistance to each other is down, and their stuffy New York mentality, especially Audrey’s, has been stripped away. They are brought to God’s own earth, if you like, and none of the nonsense from the city stands for very much with the salty Irish folks.”
Without the armor of their jobs to come between them, Audrey and Daniel are swept up in the moment. “They start to connect to each other and react to each other as human beings, not lawyer to lawyer,” says Howitt. After a night of romance and drinking, Audrey and Daniel wake to find themselves married. “It’s a dance between the two of them,” says Pierce Brosnan. “And it started from the first glance. Daniel’s not going to let Audrey go until he wins her. These two people deal with miserable lives for a living, couples whose lives have fallen asunder, who have fallen out of love. And now they find themselves falling in love, knowing all the pitfalls of love and marriage. Yet, he’s willing to fight for her.”
The experience “is quite good for the soul of their characters and the soul of their relationship,” comments Howitt. “Because when they get back to New York, they have bonded through this experience in Ireland.”
Parker Posey plays fashion designer Serena, who is pitted against her soon-to-be ex-husband Thorne Jamison (Michael Sheen) – lead singer of rock band Thorne Jamison and The Needles. “Serena is either going to divorce Thorne or murder him,” says Posey. “But it’s this passion that provides the emotional catalyst for the story. Everything about them is over-the-top – the way they dress, where they live, the way they love each other. And because they are so unrepressed they are a kind of example to Daniel and Audrey, which allows them to come together.”
Playing mega-star Thorne, Michael Sheen admits, came naturally to the actor. “I think everyone, including myself, was a bit shocked at how easy it was to get into the part of a rock god,” he muses. “It’s terrific fun. The characters of Thorne and Serena are so over-the-top to begin with that we have enormous fun articulating their relationship.”
Frances Fisher plays Sara Miller, Audrey’s mother. “I think Sara is every woman’s fantasy,” Fisher describes. “She loves life, she’s rich; and she enjoys herself and makes no apologies for it.” Sara is, according to Fisher, the polar opposite of her daughter. “As with many parent-child relationships, whatever the parent does, the child does the opposite,” she explains. “Because Sara is so adventurous, Audrey has gone the opposite way. But she has wisdom. There is an intuitive understanding of relationships which Audrey can learn from, so Sara ends up having a really pivotal role in the story.’
The challenge in Laws of Attraction, says director Peter Howitt, is finding out how Audrey and Daniel, two very different people, might find some kind of common ground. “Audrey is a very reticent character and Daniel, although he seems at first to be just a typical gigolo, has genuinely seen something in her that he hasn’t seen in anyone else,” the director says. “But she can’t believe that anyone would see that in her and also doesn’t believe that he is sincere, so she has to look beyond the surface. That his devil-may-care attitude hides a more profound moral and psychological foundation, which over a period of time she comes to understand.”
Producer David T. Friendly explains that these two characters suffer from what he calls “the ‘tailor with short pants syndrome’ – people who deconstruct relationships for a living but aren’t so good at keeping their own together,” Friendly explains. “In many ways, it’s a throwback to the more character-driven films of the 1940’s – no special effects, no stunts, just two great actors sparring off each other with great dialogue. What I loved about the films of Billy Wilder and Hepburn and Tracy, in particular, was their intelligence and pace. This script has some great banter that has a terrific rhythm to it.”
Friendly took the project to Pierce Brosnan and his producing partner Beau St. Clair’s Irish DreamTime production company. Brosnan, who had been wanting to make a romantic comedy following the success of The Thomas Crown Affair, responded immediately to the concept.
St. Clair feels Laws of Attraction harkens back to the Cary Grant tradition – a film not designed to specifically appeal to 14-24 year-olds. “There’s a huge demand from the over-25 audience for adult, intelligent movie fare,” she comments. “Today’s audiences just aren’t getting those kind of entertaining, smart, grown-up films.”
Internationally recognized for his highly successful incarnation of James Bond, Brosnan was an ideal partner to bring this film to life. “Pierce is a classically trained actor – there’s a lot more to him than Bond,” comments Friendly.
Beau St. Clair sees the role less as a departure than a revisiting of Brosnan’s earlier acting successes. “If you remember ‘Remington Steele’ and Pierce’s work in films like Mrs. Doubtfire, you’ll know that he has tremendous comic ability,” she says. “I think he’s completely at home in the shoes of Daniel Rafferty.’
For Brosnan, as executive producer and star, getting the right actress for the part of Audrey Woods was crucial to the success of the project. “We needed an actress who could communicate depth and possessed more than meets the eye – otherwise why would she be so beguiling to Daniel?” says Brosnan. “I really to wanted to work with the best actress we could find, and truly we got the best in Julianne Moore.”
“Most modern romantic comedy is told from the point of view of the woman,” says producer David T. Friendly. “It was critical that we had an actress who not only had intelligence and charisma but who could carry the comedy as well as the emotion.’
“I’ve done a wide range of work,” says Julianne Moore, “but never anything like this. It’s very sweet and funny and I really wanted to do it because the script is really great. That’s the main reason I do anything. And of course the opportunity to work with Pierce was an added bonus.”
Best known for her acclaimed work as a dramatic actress in films like Far from Heaven and The Hours, Moore found a nice change of pace in Audrey Woods. “With a film like this you’re going to encounter some broad character traits,” she explains, “but your job as an actor is to find the human qualities behind the broadness; to give Audrey a real human dimension. Audrey is not unlike many working women today. It’s difficult, as any of us who have families know, to keep all those things going and not be consumed by any one of them.”
“Early on in the shoot I noticed Julianne doing things that I didn’t expect,” director Peter Howitt raves. “Every day on the set, she got me more interested in Audrey.”
Producer Beau St. Clair underlines the importance of reality to a genre many may consider ephemeral in tone and intent. “The truth is that in a romantic comedy it’s not enough to be just romantic or just funny – you need both,” she says. “You need actors who can be funny but also believable.”
Reflecting on the appeal of the film, Peter Howitt describes Laws of Attraction as “a great falling in love story, based on two people becoming vulnerable and opening up to the other and changing.”
“You have to fight for some things in your life,” concludes Pierce Brosnan. “And love is one of the most important things to fight for.”
The three month shoot on Laws of Attraction began in Ireland, where the company filmed entirely in Dublin and Wicklow Counties. Humewood House, a private residence in Kiltegan, County Wicklow, served as the castle which is at the center of the divorce case between Serena and Thorne. The Ardmore Film Studios in Wicklow were also utilized for interior shots.
The production then moved to New York City, where locations included Chinatown, Soho and the New York State Supreme Count Building. It was while filming in New York on August 14th, 2003 that the shoot was caught up in the massive power blackout that affected much of the East coast. But without missing a beat, the crew switched to backup power generators and managed to complete the day’s filming.
Laws of Attraction (2004)
Directed by: Peter Howitt
Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Julianne Moore, Parker Posey, Frances Fisher, Nora Dunn, Heather Ann Nurnberg, Mike Doyle, Allan Houston, Annika Pergament, John Discepolo
Screenplay by: Aline Brosh McKenna, Karey Kirkpatrick
Production Design by: Charles Wood
Cinematography by: Adrian Biddle
Film Editing by: Tony Lawson
Costume Design by: Joan Bergin
Set Decoration by: Michael Seirton
Art Direction by: Susie Cullen
Music by: Ed Shearmur
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and language.
Distributed by: New Line Cinema
Release Date: April 30, 2004
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