Life or Something Like It

Live life to the fullest. Seize the day. Don't let life pass you by. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Angelina Jolie plays a superficial, yet charming news reporter in designer suits, Jackie O. sunglasses and a poofy blonde Marilyn Monroe do. So, while looking more like a young John Lithgow in drag than the late Norma Jean, Mrs. Billy Bob extinguishes her bubblegum masquerade of happiness and perfection when a streetwalking soothsayer predicts her not-too-distant death. During the last days of her life, she starts a Rolling Stones sing-along with transit workers on strike, humiliates a revered reporter on national TV, breaks up with her young hotshot jock fiance, and has sex with a co-worker (Edward Burns) whom she despises, but likes, but loathes, but loves. Isn't that what you would do? Regardless of the never-ending lack of logic, implausible situations, and rehashed carpe diem propaganda, the captivating on-screen performances of Jolie and Burns make Stephen Herek's trite and unpolished film decent, or something like it.