Juliet, Naked                      4 ½ stars

For a pleasant change I took in a romantic comedy, Juliet, Naked which is recently released and stars Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke and Chris O’Dowd.  This was not your typical silly derivative romantic comedy, but one that has a more real feel to it, one that has several laughs that can be described as low key, but still very amusing.  O’Dowd is Duncan who lives with his long time girlfriend Annie (Byrne) in a quiet British coastal town and is obsessed with Tucker Crowe, an American rock star who made a splash twenty five years earlier and hasn’t been heard from since.  Duncan even has a website dedicated to his favorite artist and one day receives a recording of an early unfinished version of a Crowe album called Juliet, Naked.  Duncan of course thinks this is a fantastic find, but girlfriend Annie is not so impressed so she writes an anonymous review dismissing the recording as nothing very special, much to the disgust of Duncan.  Well, eventually who should find the review but Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke) himself.  Crowe actually agrees with Annie and the two set out to have a regular ongoing correspondence of everything going on in their lives.  We find out that Crowe has made a mess of his life having several children by different women, all of whom he has declined to take responsibility for.  Of course you can see that these two internet friends will have to get together and explore how they can relate in person.  This is when things really start to happen and life gets much more complicated.  The movie works well with its genuine writing and some outstanding performances by all three main characters.  It is also aided by the contributions of two young actors as two of Crowe’s children.  Juliet, Naked is based on a novel by Nick Hornby and works well as a comedy that deals with some real relationship issues, but also delivers its share of comedic moments.  The movie is made even better when you consider it has original music actually sung by Ethan Hawke!