braddugg Sexiest Musical ever. A movie all about sex and music.Not sure what the writer director John Turturro wanted to venture before writing this film. But once he wrote, it clearly came as he wanted it. The songs are meticulously chosen and the lip sync done by actors adds up to the music.This movie is about marital issues in simplest terms. But there are layers which just keep coming along. James Gandolfini as Nick Murder has too many issues at home to deal with. If he deals with his wife, he would deal with all the issues. But sadly, he just cannot leave his wife. A shameless husband he is.Kate Winslet as Tula, the lingerie seller add so much life and color to her character that whenever she is turned on, she becomes the dirtiest woman. She is so naturally good I feel, he acceptance of this movie just re establishes her liking for meaty roles. Susan Sarandon as Kitty, Nick's wife just does what she believes is right for the scene. She is yelling or aggressive at Nick and has fun with her ex lover Angelo.The characters are sketched out from clichés and are written from director's brain which is so damn tough to decipher. Any film can end in any way, but life ends in one way only that is death. Do I need to say more. The story of infidelity was never told more beautifully or comically or even sexually.There are so many other characters like Nick's friend or Nick's daughters who are so very clichéd and just speak as they should. Acting is superb as expected but what takes the acting to a higher altitude is the dialogues. Each dialogue makes the character in itself interesting.I watched this film just be seeing the poster and getting to know that Barton FInk's John Turturro has directed it and was blown away by the time i finished watching.It's good in every which I shall say, but i's a tad longer than expected. Yet, it makes a great watch. I am unhappy that I missed such an opportunity to see it in theater but now, I have seen and am happy.I would go with 4/5 for one of the best musicals ever. And it's very good to see a movie for not taking the point it wanted to say seriously.

museumofdave If you like "slightly nuts," you may like this offbeat Blue Collar musical, a sort of Turturro Home Movie crossed with a little bit of soap opera and a good amount of goofy comedy. The tone is not consistent: what happens in the plot is not what is usually expected in this kind of film, and those who want a linear plot where everything is consistent in tone and it all ends nicely will be disappointed.Romance and Cigarettes often a bit silly, but as critic Wesley Morris commented, "it transcends preposterousness with tons of ardor." It's clear that Sarandon, Gandolfini and Kate Winslet are doing this for love, and the honest feeling that shines through the last few minutes of the film is what love is really all about. I would have paid full theatre price for this little gem just to watch Christopher Walken do some amazing parody work with minimal effort.

moonspinner55 An interesting misfire. Blue-collar Catholic husband from Queens, fighting with his infected lungs, cheats on his stalwart (but apparently sexless) wife with a red-haired British chippie and suffers the consequences. Perplexing drama from writer-director John Turturro, who seems caught in a Nicolas Roeg/Dennis Potter phase and frequently has his actors bursting into song-and-dance. The surreal musical-fringe isn't the general problem however, it is the unblushing sexual dialogue which makes these characters appear cartoonish. For all the careful work he does get accomplished, Turturro as a screenwriter is like a horny prankster with a poison pen. The overall effect is both immature and off-putting, although the filmmaker certainly gained the trust of his all-star cast, most of whom do solid work. *1/2 from ****

jpschapira It's no coincidence that "Romance & Cigarettes" was executive produced by the Coen Brothers, who once in the brilliant "The Big Lebowski" created two musical sequences out of nothing to show the freedom making cinema meant for them. This film, written and directed by John Turturro, is the story of a husband that tries to get the love of his wife back, and I'm still not sure if it's mainly a musical; but I can assure you it's ruled by freedom.There's a great Spanish film, "El otro lado de la cama", that deals with a love quadrangle and in which the characters express their joys and sorrows in songs, and appear dancing and singing in the middle of the street. In this aspect, Turturro's film is exactly the same but I want to name a few things to emphasize the fact that "Romance & Cigarettes" was conceived with the beautiful idea of embracing the freedom that comes with film-making. First, the fact that Turturro, who has been married for more than twenty years and has two children, builds his story from the perspective of adult love. The main characters, Nick (James Gandolfini) and Kitty (Susan Sarandon), have been married for twenty years and as the film begins she discovers he's being unfaithful, and not precisely with a woman that could be compared to his wife, who angrily shouts: "I've been cooking for you for the last twenty years!".Nicky and Kitty's problems constitute the center of the movie (which gives place for Gandolfini to get out on the street and sing "A Man Without Love", as the whole city working men start joining him) that also deals with adolescent love in the relationship of one of Nick's daughters, Baby (Mandy Moore), and Fryburg (Bobby Cannavale); but this already starts bordering the ridiculous.The ridiculous is, of course, is an asset that shows Turturro's freedom. It's everywhere, if you pay attention. Take the scene in which we first meet the woman with whom Nick has the affair. Nick and some of his co-workers are dressed as firemen who try to put out the fire of a window, where a sexy woman can be seen dancing. She's Tula (Kate Winslet), and the music she dances with is Spanish Flamenco, but when we meet her then she has nothing to do with Spain; she's Irish (or maybe Scottish). Anyway, the thing is that the water coming from the pumps stops pumping and all these firemen end up dancing with Tula. It maybe hard for you to imagine it by reading it (and that's why you have to see the film), but it's fantastic.Another example of the film's careless and joyful existence is another one of Nicks daughters, Constance, played by Mary-Louise Parker. It's a wonderfully absurd performance by Parker, who is 44, and plays Constance as a rebellious teenager who reinvents herself everyday. Now we've got to wonder why Turturro might have given her the role: I'm almost sure that he did it because the actress is among the very few people who can really pull it off. Another annoying performance that is supposed to seem annoying and out of place is Nick's third daughter, Rosebud; a completely weird human being played by the director's cousin Aida Turturro. Just like it's no coincidence that the Coens produced the film, it's also logical that Turturro would find his casting options in the Coen universe: Steve Buscemi plays a minor role; James Gandolfini, a robust man and a serious character dramatic actor you would never imagine in a film of this type and whose best work is in a Coens film, achieves a perfection and a tenderness that we can sense was not difficult for him. Of course there are elements of the cast, like the enormous Parker, that come from somewhere else, which is Turturro's experience of some many years in the industry. What Kate Winslet makes of Tula, only she can make it; what Elaine Stritch does in two minutes can't be topped by anyone; Susan Sarandon is unique and Christopher Walken dancing is… well, you should already know about Walken. What I want to say is that Turturo has something to say, and it's not to be found in the songs that the film contains; or the script, which is a mixture of relationship knowledge (something greatly developed in "El Otro lado de la cama") and songs that turn into actual spoken words and vice-versa. In fact, it takes another bit of attention to notice the fact that the songs are partially sang by the actors (they sing over the originals) and sometimes some of them don't get the tempo right, that the choreographies are far from perfect (even though Tom Stern's cinematography gets the best out of every scene, acted and/or danced); but this doesn't make the film less brave or extravagant or fundamental in its message. I say too often that musicals need to fly on screen, because "Moulin Rouge!" soars and it set a bar. There's a plane in "Romance & Cigarettes" that is shown several times and it never seems to land: I think it's trying to make clear that the movie, even if we can't define it in the musical genre, flies…High.