I must admit, in advance, that I am a pure sucker for Albert Brooks. There is nary a man in this country that can draw a belly wrenching laugh out of me more effectively than this man. That said, "The Muse" is Mr. Brooks' weakest effort to date. Although the razor sharp wit, the self-effacing humor, and the sad sack demeanor were all present and accounted for, the plot was an absolute mess. Much like Woody Allen, it seems that the further Albert Brooks strays from his own neuroses as the definitive central plot point, the more unfocused his films become. In addition, the less additional characters he tries to develop and weave into the plot, the better. The idea is a pretty simple, and yet quite clever, one. Brooks plays a successful Hollywood writer whos career is in a heap of trouble. He seeks advice from a good friend(a totally wasted appearance by the brilliant Jeff Bridges), who hooks him up with a flighty, high maintenance woman(Sharon Stone), who claims to be a genuine, modern-day muse. She takes him on as her latest "case," and proceeds to both aid his writing and complicate his life. As the writer and his new muse first get to know each other, Brooks is at his best, running rampantly is a depressive panic trying to satisfy her every desire. It seemed clear at that point that the next hour and a half would be composed of watching this sole relationship play itself out(just as Brooks did with Julie Haggerty in "Lost in America" and with Meryl Streep in "Defending Your Life"). No such luck. It is not long before we are presented with the talentless Andie MacDowell as Brooks' wife. I swear, this woman has taken over for Penelope Ann Miller as the most unwatchable actress working in film today. And to compound the matter Brooks writes in an inane subplot which has the muse inspiring the wife to follow her dream of going into the cookie business. And so, instead of Brooks and Stone playing off each other,we are relegated to Andie feigning glee as she reaches wonderful levels of cookie success, as Brooks stays in the background pumping out his new "inspired" script(a ridiculous story about a guy who inherits an aquarium which is neither inspired nor funny). All in all, I got a bunch of good laughs(especially at Martin Scorsese's cameo), but easily could've waited for video. I will still await his next effort with baited breath.
