'Music and Lyrics' bubblegum fun

The new romantic comedy "Music and Lyrics," starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, has a lot in common with those little heart-shaped candies exchanged around Valentine's Day: It's sickly sweet, contains little nutritional value and comes with plenty of one-liners.But, like Necco's Sweethearts, "Music and Lyrics" has a way of leaving you feeling oddly satisfied - as long as you know what you're getting yourself into.Grant is Alex Fletcher, ex-co-frontman of the 80s group Pop!, a Wham!-inspired supergroup now relegated to where-are-they-now status. These days, Alex plays state fairs, high school reunions and amusement parks, but lately even those aren't a sure bet - Knott's Berry Farm just canceled.But wait - as it happens, a contemporary and wildly popular - not to mention Britney-esque - diva called Cora Corman (Haley Bennet) is a huge Pop! fan, and is just dying for Alex to ghostwrite a duet for the two of them to sing at an upcoming concert at Madison Square Garden. It's the perfect opportunity for him to escape has-been musical obscurity and, maybe, get the Knott's Berry gig again. Only problem? Alex can't write - he once tried to rhyme "you and me" with "autopsy" - and has just a few days to pen the thing. Enter Sophie Fisher (Barrymore), who shows up one day as Alex's fill-in houseplant caretaker. (Never mind that Alex appears to have nothing more complicated to baby than some lucky bamboo and a particularly fearsome-looking cactus.) Sophie, it turns out, is lousy at watering plants, but she just happens to have an uncanny knack for writing clever pop verse, revealed as she absent mindedly hums some potential lines to herself while Alex struggles with a song on the piano. Alex, understandably desperate, is more than willing to enlist her in the cause.With their musical collaboration in the offing, of course, romance can't be far away, and that means minor obstacles and misunderstandings. But Barrymore and, especially, Grant, work well together, managing to make palatable, if not beautiful, music together out of a bland script and predictable plot. Grant particularly has a way of making every line from writer-director Marc Lawrence sound more wryly funny than they actually are. That's not to say "Music and Lyrics" is as perfect as an a-ha video. Barrymore is at her herky-jerkiest here, all tics and twitches, which is supposed to be cute but begins to grate by the umpteenth time she starts repeatedly clicking her pen. And a complication involving Sophie's past involvement with a professor who borrowed her persona for an unflattering based-on-a-true-story best-selling novel feels exceedingly perfunctory, even by light romantic comedy standards.To be sure, the movie does have its moments. The best of these comes early, with what's supposed to be Pop!'s biggest hit music video, played out in full early-MTV glory, all hair, white suits, tight pants and gratuitous effects. It's a hilarious look at that decade's quintessential cultural product. But it's a clever way to satirize our current cultural climate too, by juxtaposing 80s entertainment values against more modern, even more substance-less ones - as when Alex is asked to perform on a reality television show plunking 80s pop stars in a boxing ring.In the end, though, "Music and Lyrics" is not about innocence lost or what passes for pop culture these days. It's a sweet picture - with some decent performances - that manages to hit a few good notes. Don't expect much more, and you might actually enjoy it.