down with love movie review

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"Down with Love" opens with the big CinemaScope logo that once announced 20th Century Fox mass-market entertainments. The titles show animated letters bouncing each other off the screen, and the music is chirpy. The movie's opening scenes confirm these clues: This is a movie set in 1962, and filmed in the style of those Doris Day - Rock Hudson classics about the battle of the sexes. That it adds an unexpected twist is part of the fun.

Maybe filmmakers believe that movies lost something when they added irony. " Far from Heaven " was in the style of a 1957 Universal melodrama, and now this wide screen comedy, with bright colors and enormous sets filled with postwar modern furniture, wants to remember a time before the sexual revolution.

Well, just barely before. Its heroine is determined to usher it in. She is Barbara Novak ( Renee Zellweger ), a New Englander whose new best seller, Down With Love , has just pushed John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage off the charts (and about time, too, since JFK's book was published in 1956). Novak's book announces a new woman who will not be subservient to men in the workplace, and will call her own shots in the bedroom.

This attracts the attention of Catcher Block ( Ewan McGregor ), a womanizing male chauvinist pig who works as a magazine writer, specializing in exposes. He bets his boss Peter MacMannus ( David Hyde Pierce ) that he can seduce Barbara, prove she's an old-fashioned woman at heart, and write a sensational article about it. Meanwhile, Barbara's publisher, Vikki Hiller ( Sarah Paulson ), announces a publicity coup: She's arranged an interview with ... well, Catcher Block, of course.

Any movie fan can figure out the 1962 casting of these characters. Barbara and Catcher are Doris Day and Rock Hudson, Vikki is Lauren Bacall , and Peter is Tony Randall ; Randall himself, in fact, is in this movie, as chairman of the board. And the plot resembles Day's movies in the sex department: Barbara Novak talks a lot about sex and gets in precarious positions, but never quite compromises her principles.

The movie has a lot of fun with the split-screen techniques of the 1960s, which exploited the extra-wide screen. If you remember the split-screen phone calls in "Pillow Talk," you'll enjoy the same technique here, in a series of calls where Catcher stands up Barbara on a series of dinner dates. "Down With Love" borrows a technique from the Austin Powers series (itself a throwback to the 1960s) with scenes in which the split-screen is used to suggest strenuous sexual activity that is, in fact, quite innocently non-sexual.

I don't believe anyone will equal whatever it was that Doris Day had; she was one of a kind. But Renee Zellweger comes closest, with her wide eyes, naive innocence and almost aggressive sincerity. She has a speech toward the end of the movie where the camera simply remains still and regards her, as a torrent of words pours out from her character's innermost soul.

"Down With Love" is no better or worse than the movies that inspired it, but that is a compliment, I think. It recalls a time when society had more rigid rules for the genders, and thus more adventure in transcending them. And it relishes the big scene where a hypocrite gets his comeuppance. The very concept of "comeuppance" is obsolete in these permissive modern times, when few movie characters have a sense of shame and behavior is justified in terms of pure selfishness. Barbara Novak's outrage at sneaky behavior is one of the movie's most refreshing elements from the 1960s--not to say she isn't above a few neat tricks herself.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Down with Love (2003)

Rated PG-13 For Sexual Humor and Dialogue

Ewan McGregor as Catcher Block

Renée Zellweger as Barbara Novak

David Hyde Pierce as Peter MacMannus.

Sarah Paulson as Vikki Hiller

Tony Randall as Theodore Banner

Directed by

• Peyton Reed
• Dennis Drake

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Down with love, common sense media reviewers.

Hilarious spoof on '60s comedies for mature 14+.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Equality of women a comic theme of the movie.

Constant sexual references and situations includin

Brief strong language, many double entendres.

Drinking and smoking as emblems of sophistication.

Parents need to know that this movie has a good deal of sexual innuendo and double entendres, including an extended split-screen sequence that makes it appear that the characters are engaging in a number of sexual acts. There is brief strong language. Characters drink and smoke as evidence of sophistication. Equality…

Positive Messages

Sex, romance & nudity.

Constant sexual references and situations including apparent sexual encounters.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this movie has a good deal of sexual innuendo and double entendres, including an extended split-screen sequence that makes it appear that the characters are engaging in a number of sexual acts. There is brief strong language. Characters drink and smoke as evidence of sophistication. Equality of women is a humorous theme of the movie. As in the 1960s movies it salutes, all characters are white. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (4)
• Kids say (1)

Based on 4 parent reviews

A different type of rom-com

One scene ruins it for the kids, what's the story.

In DOWN WITH LOVE, Barbara Novak (Renee Zellwegger) is the author of a book called Down with Love , that tells women to be strong and independent, to find fulfillment in work and to use men for sex but not become emotionally attached. Magazine writer and man-about-town Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor) decides to expose her as a hypcrite by making her fall in love with him. He pretends to be a shy astronaut who does not want to have sex unless he is in love. But Barbara -- and Cupid -- have a few surprises in store for him.

Is It Any Good?

Down With Love can't make up its mind whether it is a salute to the Doris Day-Rock Hudson/James Garner/Cary Grant movies of the 1960s or a parody of them. Perhaps surprisingly, it works better as a salute, and never quite reaches the heights of the movies that inspired it. The movie begins by saying that "the time is now -- 1962" and the period details are, well, swell, including flip hairdos, Tang, martinis, the twist, Camelot and clothes and furniture that are the kickiest! Catch is wearing a dinner jacket when he returns from a luau with the astronauts at Cocoa Beach.

When Barbara's book becomes a worldwide sensation, she receives the ultimate badge of fame -- an Alfred E. Newman parody on the cover of Mad magazine. But the best of the movie's in-jokes is Tony Randall, who often played Hudson's best friend, a neurotic rich guy who hopelessly envied Hudson's confidence and success with the ladies in the original series of movies. In Down With Love , that role is exquisitely played by David Hyde Pierce, but Randall appears as the head of the publishing firm, demonstrating his impeccable timing and delivery. Indeed, the supporting players, sets, and costumes are so vivid that they make the main characters seem a little bland.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about whether a similar plot could work in a movie set in current times.

Movie Details

• In theaters : May 16, 2003
• On DVD or streaming : October 7, 2003
• Cast : David Hyde Pierce , Ewan McGregor , Renee Zellweger
• Director : Peyton Reed
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Twentieth Century Fox
• Genre : Comedy
• Run time : 110 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : sexual humor and dialogue
• Last updated : January 1, 2023

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Down With Love Reviews

The performances lacked focus.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4.0 | Sep 6, 2020

It left me so giddy I watched it twice.

Full Review | May 20, 2020

Absolutely to-die-for vintage-style and couture frocks. Hey, what can I say? You've can't help but be up for Down With Love!

Full Review | Nov 7, 2019

This purports to be a modern version of the Doris Day-Rock Hudson Pillow Talk comedies but ends up being a big snore.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jan 4, 2018

A delightful old-fashioned lighthearted guilty pleasure treat.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Nov 7, 2017

a desperate wish to return to a world before Vietnam, Internet pornography and 9/11

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 12, 2016

Hilarious spoof on '60s comedies for mature 14+.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 22, 2010

Director Peyton Reed keeps this fizzy comedy in an alluringly goofy tizzy from start to finish. This is undoubtedly the skillful battle-of-the-sexes laugher Rock Hudson and Doris Day would have made were they able to naughtily quip about bitches and hose.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 25, 2010

While the movie definitely has tongue lodged firmly in its postmodern cheek, every detail looks and feels authentic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 9, 2010

Takes a creative concept and never knows how to handle it with a less than top-notch script and terrible delivery.

Full Review | Apr 29, 2009

Zellweger and McGregor have only their dimpled cuteness to get them through this movie, which you sense, at least from their mugging, that they believe is enough. It isn't.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Aug 5, 2007

By mixing the '60s aesthetic with a 21st-century attitude, Reed has created something much more fun ... than your average Sandra Bullock or Julia Roberts vehicle.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 29, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 6, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 0.5/5 | Dec 6, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 30, 2005

... as light, cheap, and ultimately as insubstantial as cotton candy. And yet, it inadvertently strikes some resonant chords.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Dec 6, 2004

As it is, 'Down With Love' seems forced, with the principals looking like youngsters dressing up and over-acting to impersonate grown-ups.

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Oct 14, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Oct 7, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: B | Aug 7, 2004

Bright and very funny... manages to recreate a filmmaking style that was practically a parody of itself in the first place.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 6, 2004

Review of Down with Love

Exposed: penetrating the charm of <i>down with love</i>..

2.5 out of 5 Stars, 5/10 Score

In This Article

Where to Watch

Review of <I>Down with Love</I>

IGN Recommends

Down With Love

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Once upon a time unchartered by The Matrix crowd, meaning the 1960s, Hollywood made comedies in which Doris Day played a professional virgin and Rock Hudson, then a closeted gay, played a stud who failed to get in her pants unless he flashed a wedding ring. These films were sugary fantasies shot on studio sets with painted backdrops. They had no resemblance to the world we live in, then or now. That’s what was fun about them.

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Down With Love is an attempt to recreate that Pillow Talk era. For starters, the film looks as yummy as Renée Zellweger, who shows up in full Doris Day twinkle as Barbara Novak, a new girl in the Big Apple. She’s promoting her book, a manifesto advising single women to favor career over marriage and sex over love. Ewan McGregor plays Catcher Block (great name), a Brit playboy journalist out to expose Barbara as a sham; he’ll do that by pretending he’s a naive astronaut from Texas and make Barbara fall in marriage-minded love with him.

With David Hyde Pierce doing the Tony Randall role from the Day-Hudson movies as Catcher’s prissy editor, the gay subtext comes to the fore only to hang there, unexplored. Director Peyton Reed, who deftly handled the 2000 cheerleader comedy Bring It On , can’t hoist the script by first-timers Eve Ahlert and Dennis Drake above the level of cheap laughs. In Far From Heaven, director Todd Haynes crafted a 1950s melodrama that caught the surface of the period and the tensions roiling underneath. Down With Love is all surface, and its mocking tone grows grating. More damagingly, Zellweger has no zing with McGregor, who seems uncomfortable in a stud role that, say, Hugh Jackman could have nailed. What starts as freshly spun cotton candy ends as something pink, sticky and indigestible. You leave the theater wanting to puke it up.

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Down with Love (2003)

Directed by peyton reed.

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Description by Wikipedia

Down with Love is a 2003 romantic comedy film. It was directed by Peyton Reed and stars Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, Sarah Paulson and David Hyde Pierce.

The story follows a woman who advocates female independence in combat with a lothario and the patriarchal, even male chauvinist society of the 1950s and early 1960s. The film is a pastiche of the sex comedies that were popular in the era in which Down with Love is set, in particular the three films that starred Doris Day and Rock Hudson: 1959's Pillow Talk, 1961's Lover Come Back and 1964's Send Me No Flowers.

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Alternate Titles

Down With Love Review

03 Oct 2003

101 minutes

Down With Love

Let's face it, the world isn't exactly crying out for a tribute to the Rock Hudson/Doris Day capers of the late '50s/early '60s. America certainly isn't, if this film's disappointing US box office is anything to go by. Nonetheless, director Reed (Bring It On) has lovingly recreated the kitsch style and innuendo-charged wit of comedies like Pillow Talk in this fluffy little frippery, and with moderate success.

Drawing its romantic obstacles from a burgeoning sexual revolution (Barbara's theory for female empowerment champions sex over romantic love), this revels in the changing political climate of its time. Catcher woos simpering air hostesses only to face rejection once they've read Barbara's man-bashing tome, Down With Love, while her publisher Vikki makes mincemeat of Catcher's smitten boss, Peter.

The fluidity of the sexual dynamics drives the plot forward while permitting nudges and winks aplenty - Catcher and Barbara are both trying to stick to their guns (she mustn't fall in love, he mustn't have sex if he's to win her heart), while the effeminate Peter is attempting to convince Vikki that he's all man. To lay on the farce further, the two men swap flats for the purposes of wooing their women. So while Peter is fumbling with the hi-tech controls of a kitted-out bachelor pad, Catcher is using his boss' more traditional quarters to convince Barbara of his worth as a long-term prospect.

Casting-wise, McGregor is no Rock Hudson, but he glides through his role as a dapper poseur with the requisite charm and lightness of touch, as does Hyde Pierce in a near-reprisal of his regular role as Frasier Crane's uptight brother Niles in the long-running US sitcom. Zellweger, however, may act the part but does not look it, her bony frame appearing out of place amidst the curvy '60s stylings.

This, along with a few clumsy scenes and a slight overdose of knowing humour, makes Down With Love more of a pleasant little diversion than a truly confident comedy.

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• DVD & Streaming

Down With Love

• Comedy , Romance

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Renée Zellweger as Barbara Novak; Ewan McGregor as Catcher Block; David Hyde Pierce as Peter McMannus; Sarah Paulson as Vicki Hiller; Tony Randall as Theodore Banner

Home Release Date

• Peyton Reed

Distributor

• 20th Century Fox

Movie Review

Starring recent movie-musical faves Renée Zellweger (Chicago) and Ewan McGregor (Moulin Rouge!) , Down With Love plays to the genre without actually becoming part of it. Maybe it’s the stylized 1962 New York City setting. Maybe it’s the stunningly vivid period costumes, or the perfectly coifed Jackie-O hair. Whatever the reason, by the time Zellweger and McGregor get around to their one-and-only dance number (during the closing credits), you’re already mostly convinced they’ve been singing for the past hour. Instead, what you’ve actually witnessed is a flirty throwback comedy made for the same reason they used to make ’em: pure over-the-top inanity.

Zellweger’s Barbara Novak has just arrived in New York to promote her new book, Down With Love . It’s a liberal, feminist tome chockfull of she-woman, man-hating, grrrl-power jargon designed to establish womankind’s equality in the workplace and the bedroom. At first it languishes on isolated store shelves, so Barbara and her publicist, Vicki, beg hotshot journalist Catcher Block to feature them in an exposé. But Catcher’s much to busy chasing skirts to bother. Then Judy Garland appears on The Ed Sullivan Show singing a song about Down With Love . The book becomes an instant smash. Now Barbara has the chance to return Catcher’s, ahem, graciousness , and she does it in spades. He’s drooling over her story potential (and her sex appeal). She’s determined to keep him at arm’s length. Angry that he’s being turned down by a woman , Catcher hatches a plan to expose Little Miss Down With Love for the lovelorn, lonely female that she is. So he sets out to woo her by posing as a geeky astronaut named Zip. Barbara takes the bait. But don’t think for a second that she doesn’t get the last word.

positive elements: Despite her claims that women don’t need love, they just need sex and a career, Barbara desperately craves commitment and marriage. So does Catcher, he just doesn’t know it yet. While played for laughs, Catcher’s business associate and friend, Peter, is tired of everyone thinking he’s gay and yearns to be “just like every other man.” (Unfortunately, in his mind, being “just like every other man” means having lots of sex.)

spiritual content: When asked why her book is selling so well, Barbara jokes that Midwestern Christian churches keep buying more of them to fuel their book burnings.

sexual content: Peter, Paul & Mary were talking about rock ‘n’ roll when they sang the lines, “I think I could say somethin’ if you know what I mean/But if I really say it, the radio won’t play it/Unless I lay it between the lines,” but the Down With Love screenwriters must have had that song on repeat while they wrote this dialogue. Everything in this movie is an innuendo or double entendre of some kind. There are no sex scenes, just non-stop allusions to them. Peter isn’t gay, but you wouldn’t know it by listening to the conversation that swirls around him. (At one point Vicki blurts, “The fact that you’re a homosexual hopelessly in love with [Catcher] is no reason we can’t get married.”) Business lingo is turned into sex talk. Friendly chitchat is fraught with hidden meanings. And onscreen visuals (body positions, hand motions, actions) are manipulated to imply sexual coupling. It’s understood that Catcher habitually has sex with a whole litany of partners. Peter and Vicki have an ongoing sexual relationship (he’s convinced she’s only interested in him so she can use him for sex). It’s not surprising that he feels that way since one of Barbara’s book’s central tenants is that women should stop equating sex with love, start playing the field and “enjoy having sex like men do, à la carte.” When she introduces the book to her publisher’s creative team, her speech includes sly references to masturbation. Other scenes give nods to oral and anal sex. Catcher refuses to have sex with Barbara as a means of attracting her to him. He figures that if he’s coy enough for long enough she’ll beg him to relent (she does).

Women wear revealing outfits (there’s a joke about “falling out” of one). Barbara dances around in her lingerie. Catcher wears a towel around his middle (as part of a visual innuendo he opens it up and rubs himself with it). An elongated conversation between Catcher and Peter about sock size is “misunderstood” by Catcher’s secretary who thinks they’re talking about penis size. Conversation between Catcher and Barbara while they’re gazing through a telescope off-screen makes moviegoers think they’re having sex. Catcher fondles a girlfriend’s backside. He’s seen kissing several women. He and Barbara roll around on his bed, kissing and caressing. A nudist at a “beatnik party” is seen from the waist up (her long hair covers her breasts). The camera follows Barbara as she emerges from a bubble bath and gets dressed.

violent content: Vicki slugs Catcher, knocking him flat. She slaps Peter. An unnamed woman hits her husband with Barbara’s book.

crude or profane language: One use each of “bastard” and “b–ch” (used as a double entendre) serve as the film’s only “traditional” profanity.

drug and alcohol content: Peter hits the bottle pretty hard and Vicki lights up regularly. At a bar, Peter ends up passing out on the table. In an elevator, Vicki fills the car with smoke. (Barbara expresses annoyance with Vicki’s foul habit.) A couple of other characters also smoke and many more drink. There’s a comment made about partygoers being “in orbit.” To persuade Barbara that he wasn’t cheating on her, Catcher says the woman he was with drugged him.

conclusion: “While reading the script, we laughed out loud many times,” says co-producer Dan Jinks. “It took us to the wonderful world of those great 1960s Doris Day-Rock Hudson comedies, but [it] flipped the conventions that we see in those movies on their head.” And the leverage used is a hefty dose of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days -style sexuality. It’s under every rock. It’s in every nook and cranny. Those old ’60s comedies certainly boasted their fair share of innuendo (some even included gags about homosexuality), but Down With Love does away with the subtlety most of them clung to, replacing it with unrestrained lust. The moral of the story is that we all need love. True love . But road signs at every twist and turn along the way point in the opposite direction.

Steven Isaac

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Eye For Film >> Movies >> Down With Love (2003) Film Review

Down with love.

Reviewed by: Angus Wolfe Murray

You can imagine Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant picking up on this one and having fun with it. Times change.

Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor are in full pastiche mode, which is a different skill, more like charades. They are pretending to be people they don't understand, performing in a style that doesn't suit them and sticking to a script that is so flakey, it falls apart just looking at it.

The director Peyton Reed is attempting a mixture between a Stanley Donen tribute, a Thirties romantic comedy and a Broadway musical without songs. The performances are deliberately styalised and the set pieces intentionally camp. David Hyde Pierce, as a second generation magazine publisher, who is ineffectual in business and romantically all in a twist, comes closest to the spirit of the piece.

Although supposed to be the early Sixties, there is nothing of a burgeoning social revolution, nor even the whisper of Elvis Presley or James Dean in the wind. This could be the set for Funny Face, not a breeding ground for potential civil rights marchers.

Barbara Novak (Zellweger) has written a book, called Down With Love, which might be considered a feminist tract. It tells women to stand up for themselves, do what they want, but don't, under any circs, allow love to poison their judgement. Men, she implies, are a waste of space, except as sexual toys, and should be kept in the closet. Naturally, the book is a best seller.

Catcher Block (McGregor) is New York's leading lads mag star writer. Known as "a ladies man, a man's man, a man about town," his philandering exploits are legendary. He places a bet with his boss that he can make the ice queen fall in love with him and, therefore, expose her theories as bunkum. Naturally, he will write about it afterwards.

Zellweger is giggly and pouty and dolled up in a series of fashionably out of date suits. McGregor is smiley and smarmy and decidedly lightweight. His fluffy dialogue does not help.

The foolishness of the plot is no hinderance. Some of the best romantic comedies from the past have absurd storylines. What the film needs is a style of its own, rather than a collaborative copy of other people's. Even the chemistry doesn't work.

Director: Peyton Reed

Writer: Eve Ahlert, Dennis Drake

Starring: Renee Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, Sarah Paulson, David Hyde Pierce, Rachel Dratch, Jack Plotnick, Tony Randall

Runtime: 101 minutes

Country: US

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Movie Review

Down with love.

US Release Date: 05-16-2003

Directed by: Peyton Reed

Starring ▸ ▾

• Renee Zellweger ,  as
• Barbara Novak
• Ewan McGregor ,  as
• Catcher Block
• Sarah Paulson ,  as
• Vikki Hiller
• David Hyde Pierce ,  as
• Peter MacMannus
• Rachel Dratch ,  as
• Jack Plotnick ,  as
• Tony Randall as
• Theodore Banner

Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor in Down with Love .

 Some movies just make you feel good.  You leave the theater with the happy reminder of just why you enjoy movies so much.  Down with Love , a tongue in cheek tribute to those old Rock Hudson/Doris Day comedies, is such a movie.

Barbara Novak (Zellweger), arrives in a highly stylized New York City in 1962.  Having just written a book about the empowerment of women titled 'Down with Love', she is anxious to publicize it.  She is naturally delighted when her new best friend and editor Vikki Hiller (Sarah Paulson) lands her an interview with Know Magazine's star reporter Catcher Block (McGregor), the notorious Ladies' Man, Man's Man, Man about Town.  What Barbara doesn't know is that Catcher only agreed to do the interview as a favor to his editor; Peter MacMannus (played to neurotic perfection by David Hyde Pierce), who is secretly in lust with Vikki.

The sets are all lavish, and the clothes over the top.  From Vicki's skyline view of Manhattan, which manages to encompass every landmark in the city, to Catcher's Playboy lifestyle, there's an idealized feel to the movie that is authentically how we'd like to think life was like in that time period. A feeling that's enhanced by the use of stock footage, including an appearance by the real Judy Garland performing 'Down with Love' on the Ed Sullivan show in an effort to promote Barbara's book.

With Judy's plug, Barbara no longer needs Catcher's interview to help sell the book as it starts flying off bookshelves around the world.  Catcher, who never wanted to do the interview in the first place, and who had been putting it off with a series of less than plausible excuses, is relieved.

It is only when the women in Catcher's life began reading Barbara's book and getting ideas of their own that Catcher begins to take it seriously.  In aid of all men everywhere and with the chance of nabbing another Pulitzer Prize, he decides to write an exposé that will show the world that all women (including Barbara Novak) really want is to find a man and a fall in love.

The movie plays up many of the conventions of the old movies.  Mistaken and hidden identities, split-screen images, and the 'closeness' of the hero and his best friend, so often used in the Rock & Doris movies are all here but with modern twists that they never could have gotten away with in those old movies.

While you might not expect a movie of this nature to feature much of a twist ending (it's a romantic comedy after all), you'll be surprised by this one.  In one hilariously long and improbable monologue, Barbara's last minute confession puts the olive in this movie's martini.

Proving that what once was old can be new again, Down with Love is funny and nostalgic.  It isn't exactly like those old 'sex' comedies, but like the time period, it is authentically how we'd like to remember them.

Renee Zellweger in Down with Love .

 My favorite part of The Carol Burnett Show was when they would spoof an old movie. They would take an old plot and exaggerate it to the point of making fun of it while also making it funny. This is exactly how Down With Love worked for me.

Like The Burnett Show spoofs, Down With Love goes to great length to satire those old Rock Hudson/Doris Day Movies. Most notably, Pillow Talk . This movie pokes fun at the sexual attitudes of the time and the sexual attitudes portrayed in movies at that time.

Reed takes a time capsule of movie history and rips it open to show the absurdity of it. In Down With Love , he shows that those old romantic comedies were practically a farce. They were extremely unrealistic. This movie, as well as those old ones, are more about caricatures than actual characters.

Ewan and Renee are good here but not great. Renee, once again, is so thin and muscle shouldered that she looks too much like a modern woman who spends too much time at the gym instead of an early sixties gal. Ewan has the right hair style but lacks that lady killer presence to be completely convincing. Still, they both give such sincere, enjoyable performances that their very effort gives this movie most of it's charm.

Down With Love is worth a laugh or two; usually provided by Pierce. The problem is that it is so busy looking like an old movie that it forgets to be original. It attempts some originality near the end with a twist in the plot. However, it just makes the movie seem silly and dare I say it, stupid. Sure, romantic comedies usually have unbelievable coincidences, but this one takes it to a whole new level. Remember, the point of spoofing a movie is to make it look bad. Down With Love does the opposite.

David Hyde Pierce and Sarah Paulson in Down with Love .

 Like Scott, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It does pay a marvelously idealized tribute to the romantic comedies of the early sixties. The cast does a great job with the tongue-in-cheek material. Most notably Renee Zellweger. Her exaggerated mannerisms and walk are hilarious. The look of the movie is perfect. This is the New York of Breakfast at Tiffany's only, as Scott said, it is as we picture it in our heads and not as it really was. And the clothes are wonderful. The song and dance that McGregor and Zellweger perform is nifty and was probably not too difficult for either of them since they have both starred in the recent musicals Moulin Rouge! and Chicago respectively.

Neither of my brothers mentioned the inspired casting of Tony Randall in what would be his final screen role. He played Rock Hudson's sexually ambigious best friend in several of his movies with Doris Day. The part played here by David Hyde Pierce.

The funniest sight gag in this visually spot-on parody is the split screen telephone scene where it appears that Catcher and Barbara are having sex in an array of positions. And while the actual plot of Down with Love is not as interesting as its highly stylized look, it is nonetheless an amusing and creative homage to a more simple time.

Photos © Copyright 20th Century Fox (2003)

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Down with love.

Directed by Peyton Reed

The ultimate catch has met his match.

In 1962 New York City, love blossoms between a playboy journalist and a feminist advice author.

Renée Zellweger Ewan McGregor Sarah Paulson David Hyde Pierce Rachel Dratch Jack Plotnick Tony Randall John Aylward Matt Ross Michael Ensign Timothy Omundson Jeri Ryan Ivana Miličević Melissa George Dorie Barton Laura Kightlinger Chris Parnell Robert Katims Florence Stanley John Storey Peter Spruyt Lynn Collins David Doty Jude Ciccolella Will Jordan Brad Hanson Beth LaMure Christie Cronenweth Megan Denton Show All… Melanie Lewis Sybil Azur Joanna Collins Sandra McCoy Sarah Christine Smith Ronald Fischer Marc Shaiman Scott Wittman Pat Cusick Rick Scarry Basil Hoffman James Vincent Warren Munson

Director Director

Peyton Reed

Producers Producers

Bruce Cohen Dan Jinks

Writers Writers

Eve Ahlert Dennis Drake

Casting Casting

Francine Maisler

Editor Editor

Cinematography cinematography.

Jeff Cronenweth

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Arnon Milchan Paddy Cullen

Production Design Production Design

Andrew Laws

Art Direction Art Direction

Martin Whist David Sandefur

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Gregory S. Hooper Don Diers Hugo Santiago Eric Sundahl Mary Saisselin Cat Smith

Special Effects Special Effects

Morgan Guynes

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Lindsay Hallett Cosmas Paul Bolger Jr. Krystyna Demkowicz David Jones Craig Barron

Stunts Stunts

Sophia M. Crawford Diana R. Lupo Henry Kingi Jr.

Choreography Choreography

Anne Fletcher

Composer Composer

Marc Shaiman

Sound Sound

Cameron Frankley

Costume Design Costume Design

Daniel Orlandi

Makeup Makeup

Michelle Vittone Ashlee Petersen

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Colleen Callaghan Jeri Baker

Fox 2000 Pictures Regency Enterprises Jinks/Cohen Company Epsilon Motion Pictures Mediastream Dritte Film GmbH & Co. Beteiligungs KG

Germany Switzerland USA

Releases by Date

08 may 2003, 14 aug 2003, 18 sep 2003, 26 sep 2003, 03 oct 2003, 09 oct 2003, 17 oct 2003, 25 dec 2003, 23 jan 2004, 12 sep 2003, 16 oct 2003, 18 oct 2003, releases by country.

• Theatrical M
• Theatrical L
• Theatrical U
• Theatrical TP
• Theatrical 0
• Theatrical 15

South Korea

Switzerland.

• Theatrical 12A
• Theatrical PG-13

101 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by David Sims ★★★★ 2

now we wouldn't want the readers of Know or Now to know that now would we?

Review by Patrick Willems ★★★★ 12

Mike Myers must’ve been furious he didn’t think of the “split screen phone call scene where it looks like they’re having sex” gag first

Review by sydney ★★★★ 9

LA LA LAND is probably going to win a bunch of awards that should be retroactively given to this movie instead

Review by dani✨ ★★★★½

ewan mcgregor: [smiles] me: 😄😅☺️😍😘😚😝😏😩😱🤤👅💦👰🤰🦋🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫❤️💛💚💙💜💕💞💓💗💖💘💝

Review by alicja ★★★★ 1

me: yes! down with love! men aint shit! ewan mcgregor: *smiles* me: on second thought...

Review by ele 🪷 ★★★★★ 4

ewan mcgregor in a pink shirt and hanky begging to take a 96% pay cut so he can be renee zellweger’s private secretary is something that can be so personal

Review by maria ★★★★★ 5

that scene where renée zellweger is watching a clip of judy garland sing, in the 60s... you could call that fate

Review by #1 gizmo fan ★★★★★ 6

THIS IS JUST EWAN MCGREGOR'S VILLAIN ORIGIN STORY OF HOW HE WENT FROM BEING A TOP TO A BOTTOM

Review by demi adejuyigbe ★★★★½ 18

Review by sree ★★★★

GONE GIRL WHO?

Review by Sarah 🗡️🎀 ★★★

That split screen telephone scene has to be one of the greatest moments in cinema

Review by gal pacino ★★★★★ 5

advocates for a utopian society by encouraging the Shiv Roy-ification of women (dominant redhead) and the Tom Wambsgans-ification of men (submissive worm).  Succession proved that this is an ultimately ineffective fix, but the crucial difference here is that Barbara Novak and Catcher Block actually have brains, so it works!  💘

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Review: down with love.

Peyton Reed successfully recreates the pathology of a time period without ever really addressing it.

In Down with Love , Peyton Reed successfully recreates the pathology of a time period ( Pillow Talk , Lover Come Back and Helen Gurley Brown’s Sex and the Single Girl are major points of reference) without ever really addressing it. Unlike Douglas Sirk’s melodramas, the Doris Day/Rock Hudson comedies of the ’50s and ’60s took themselves seriously, probably because they did see themselves as accurate reflections of the time period. These honest but disposable relics are not so much parodied by Reed as much as they’re carbon-copied for the sake of applauding just how good the filmmakers are at building a pastiche. From the gauche colors of the film’s interiors to the cutesy use of rear projection, Down with Love is a triumph of set design. Barbara Novak (Renée Zellweger) writes a bestselling book about women asserting their independence and subsequently spawns a feminist revolution. Hotshot Know magazine writer Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor) wants to destroy the woman warrior by wooing her and forcing her to defy her mantra. Every double entendre is rendered with near-deadening precision—“We’re bosom buddies” [zoom in on breasts]—and even an olive falling against the side of a martini glass is seemingly accompanied by the swell of an orchestra. The actual swipes at ’50s-era repression (homosexuality, communist threats) are so few and far between that they’re mere afterthoughts to the parade of endless double-crossings that are perhaps meant to address the nature of feminism from the time period. But Down with Love doesn’t have a serious bone in its artificial body—it doesn’t penetrate [wink, wink] any myths as much as it wallows in them. By the time Zellweger delivers a last-act oh-my-God-is-she-still-talking? tirade, you may be tired of having had to watch the film’s proto-feminist bubble inflate and deflate repeatedly for 100 minutes without ever exploding.

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Ed Gonzalez

Ed Gonzalez is the co-founder of Slant Magazine . A member of the New York Film Critics Circle, his writing has appeared in The Village Voice , The Los Angeles Times , and other publications.

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The golden age of the classic Rock Hudson-Doris Day sex comedies - albeit with an edgy, retro-cool twist - is recreated in this "post-modern" sex comedy from "American Beauty" producers Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks and "Bring It On" director Peyton Reed. DOWN WITH LOVE is set in the early 1960s, and every frame pops with the super-saturated palette of 60s Technicolor. Process shots, stock shots, backlot-fake NYC street scenes, snazzy apartments, and elegant supper clubs are the backdrop for DOWN WITH LOVE's characters, including Zellweger's best-selling advice author and McGregor's hotshot journalist/playboy.

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2003 movie photos now online!

Entertainment Weekly serves up the goods on the 2003 slate!

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Down with Love

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• Duration: 101 mins

Cast and crew

• Director: Peyton Reed
• Screenwriter: Eve Ahlert, Dennis Drake
• Renée Zellweger
• Ewan McGregor
• David Hyde Pierce
• Sarah Paulson
• Tony Randall
• Rachel Dratch
• Jack Plotnick
• John Aylward
• Warren Munson
• Michael Ensign
• Timothy Omundson

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• <i>It Ends With Us</i> Can’t Quite Turn Trauma into Drama

It Ends With Us Can’t Quite Turn Trauma into Drama

A movie or book can address a serious, emotionally wrenching subject and still be a thing you can’t help snickering at, a dramatic pileup that leaves you muttering “Oh, come on!” under your breath. It Ends With Us , the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover ’s ferociously popular 2016 novel, works hard to ping all the appropriate notes. This is after all, a story of domestic abuse, a more widely shared experience in real life than most of us want to face up to. (Hoover has said that the book was inspired by her mother, who was physically abused by Hoover’s father.) And the objective reality is that we need movies like It Ends With Us . The classic genre known as the woman’s film—pictures like King Vidor’s 1937 Stella Dallas, or either version of Imitation of Life, filmed first by John Stahl in 1934 and later, in 1959, by Douglas Sirk—thrived in the ’30s, ’40s, and beyond by carving out a safe space for emotional catharsis . Women, and sometimes men, often need to cry it all out, and aren’t the movies—a refuge in the dark—the perfect place to do that?

But It Ends With Us —directed by Justin Baldoni, who also co-stars—doesn’t have the mojo to get the waterworks pumping, not even in a gentle, reserved way. Blake Lively stars as the kookily named Lily Bloom, a thoughtful young woman with a hippie-patchwork wardrobe and a guardedly bright outlook on life. She lives in Boston; she’s about to open her own flower shop, the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. In all ways, this is a period of transition. Her father has just died, and she’s not sure what to do with her mixed feelings; as we learn more about the way he abused Lily’s mother, and others, we understand why. Lily has just returned from the funeral, held in her Maine hometown, and with her jumbled thoughts, she has stolen away to a Boston rooftop with a dreamy view. But she doesn’t actually live in the building. And when a handsome neurosurgeon, who is a resident, blusters his way onto that rooftop, you get the sense her life will be changed forever.

His name is Ryle Kincaid—he’s played by Baldoni—and he's almost criminally handsome, with his sympathetic dark eyes and 10 o’clock shadow, even sexier than the 5 o’clock kind. He’s just got to be a wolf in wolf’s clothing, and in the first minutes of their meeting, it sure seems that way. The two find themselves engaged in the kind of disarmingly frank conversation that can often brew between strangers. He’s had a terrible day; she’s just lost her father, a man she loved despite the fact he might not have deserved it. Ryle listens to her, but he also tells her, “I want to have sex with you,” clearly taken with her haute-hippie-girl breeziness, which glows even through her conflicted grief. And though she calls him out, rightly, on his perhaps overly direct sales pitch, they almost do sleep together—until he’s called away to work. Because a handsome neurosurgeon’s work is never done.

Lily thinks that’s the end of it. A day or so later she gets the keys to her new shop and sets about sprucing it up, both hiring a helper and making a new friend on the same day: rich lady Allysa (the always-wonderful Jenny Slate , who breathes some life into the movie whenever she’s on-screen) just happens to stop in. She wants a job; trusting her instincts, Lily gives her one. The two become fast friends. And guess what? It turns out that semi-scary Dr. McDreamy, AKA Ryle, is Allysa's brother. What are the odds?

Though Allysa offers a few subtle warnings about Ryle’s romantic history , he and Lily fall in love anyway. Sure, he’s a player. But he makes it clear he wants to try for a real relationship with Lily. She goes for it—and then a love from her teenage years, whom we’ve previously met in flashbacks, unexpectedly steps into the frame. Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), is now a handsome but down-to-earth Boston restaurateur, and when Lily spots him, we can see there's still a spark between the two. But Lily has already earned Ryle’s trust; she decides to stay the course.

Until this point, It Ends With Us could be your classic but not-too-heavy romantic melodrama , replete with hot but tender sex and dashes of romantic befuddlement. But if you’ve read Hoover’s book , you’ll know what’s coming. Lily herself becomes the victim of domestic abuse, and it doesn’t arrive with loud warning bells. In fact, the first time Lily is injured, resulting in a bruised eye she attempts to conceal with makeup, the event is presented as an accident triggered by a scuffle to remove a burned frittata from the oven. It could happen to anyone. But the second incident is more clear-cut, and the third is unequivocally violent. Still, you look at Ryle, as Lily seems to, as possibly fixable. He’s suffering; his inner turmoil is causing him to act out. The movie is accurate and effective in this sense: for so many abused women, you never know how bad it can get, until it gets really bad.

Yet none of that is enough to make you fully buy what the movie’s selling. Lively has been terrific in other movies: her turn in the 2016 woman-vs.-shark thriller The Shallows was one of the great scream-queen performances of the last decade, and she showed nervy gravitas in Ben Affleck’s The Town. But It Ends With Us lets her down. The men, with their flaws—even kind, stalwart Atlas has a very short fuse, a yellow flag if not a red one—are far more interesting than Lily is. That doesn’t give them the right to inflict violence; but from a dramatic standpoint, it certainly makes them more electric. As Lively plays her, Lily is a blank, glassy surface, the better to reflect the shortcomings of the men around her; that’s not the same as being a person. Even by the movie’s end, she still feels like something of a muted stranger—it’s the men who come off as fully alive, as dangerous as one of them may be.

The problem, maybe, is that It Ends With Us is all about what it’s about, and nothing more. These characters exist to make points about the insidiousness of domestic violence, the way its effects can creep up invisibly even as those who are suffering cloak themselves in protective denial. Admittedly, that’s a lot for a movie to carry. But movies can’t just be efficient feeling-delivery systems; they have to work on us in subtler ways. It Ends With Us makes all its points, all right, but in a way that’s more edifying than moving. And despite the prettiness of its Boston setting, it isn’t as visually alluring as it should be. For one thing, this is a movie about a flower-loving florist that’s embarrassingly low on flowers, except for a few droopy, half-dead Victorian-looking things. It’s OK, even in a story addressing a traumatic subject, to dab a little color here and there. Flowers, their short-lived beauty notwithstanding, can often brighten even the bleakest day. In this movie, they're treated like something we don't deserve, a blessing closed up tight, instead of a thing worth living for.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Down For Love’ On Netflix, A Docuseries About People With Down Syndrome Who Are In Love Or Want To Find Love

Where to stream:.

• Down for Love

11 Best New Shows on Netflix: August 2024’s Top Upcoming Series to Watch

Stream it or skip it: ‘forbidden love’ on tlc, a reality series that explores couples that cross religions and cultures, stream it or skip it: ‘too hot to handle’ season 6 on netflix, where lana and her evil twin bad lana are playing mind games with the show’s horny contestants, kate hudson likens nick jonas to “an old man in a young man’s body” while reflecting on their rumored romance on ‘wwhl’.

Down For Love is a five-part docuseries from New Zealand that follows a number of people with Down syndrome as they either look for love and go on dates or are already in a relationship and try to figure out what their futures are.

DOWN FOR LOVE : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “For me, it’s really important to find love, because that’s what makes you human,” says one of the people featured on Dow For Love .

The Gist: In the first episode, we meet Josh, who is almost 21 and lives with his family in Auckland. He wants to find love because “I love cuddling and kissing.” His parents, brother, sister and friends marvel at his positive attitude and up-for-anything personality. Ideally, he’d want to find someone who also has Down syndrome so they have something in common. He gets some help from Dave Hicks, a relationship expert that helps people with disabilities, and Hicks tells Josh that eye contact is really important. Josh’s first date, at the theme park where he works, goes well but isn’t a love match.

We then meet Libby, 19, who lives with her grandmother in a suburb outside the city. She’s a model and actress, who starred in the film Poppy ; she feels that the relationship her character had in that film gave her the confidence to pursue one for real. She lost her mother to cancer when she was 12, and her mom is always at the forefront of her thoughts. She goes on a sailing date in Auckland, and that one also ends with the two of them just being friends.

Brooke, 27, and Jesse, 25, have been friends since they were 13 and 11, respectively, and have been together for a decade. He actually asked her to marry him when they were teenagers. They eventually want to live on their own as a couple, and they’re working towards the ability to do that. Do they want kids? It seems that Brooke does but Jesse doesn’t, but that hasn’t hurt things between them. Josh and his mother visit Jesse, Brooke and Jesse’s mother so Josh can get some advice on being in a relationship.

Then Josh and Libby go on a second date… with each other, and they hit it off.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Down For Love is more or less the same format as Love On The Spectrum , but it has a different set of producers.

Our Take: Like Love On The Spectrum , Down For Love is all about showing the people looking for love in the best possible light. Even though it’s essentially a dating series, it’s not trying to show horrible dates or love mismatches. The producers of Down For Love are rooting for love connections, and even when their subjects go on dates that don’t end up being love matches, everyone comes away from the experience with a new friend and a better idea of what they want and don’t want in a mate.

An interesting aspect of this series is the producers profiling couples as well as singletons. They’ve already found love, and they have to deal with all of the same issues other couples have to deal with. But when both people in the couple have intellectual disabilities, there’s also the issues of whether they can live on their own and if they have a grasp of some of the more complex aspects of being in a relationship.

Again, all of these topics are addressed with affection and respect. Yes, when two people like Josh and Libby hit it off, they go straight into puppy love phase, because that’s their idea of what a relationship is. But we’ll be interested to see if these couples deepen their bond as they find out more about each other.

Sex and Skin: Just some kissing and holding hands.

Parting Shot: Josh and Libby snuggle at the end of their date, then we see highlights from the next episode. Sleeper Star: Josh’s best friend is named Joshua, so we’ll give this to Joshua just because a friend pair named Josh and Joshua makes us smile.

Most Pilot-y Line: Nothing we could see.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Down For Love is warm and funny, and shows yet another example of how universal the concept of looking for love is.

Joel Keller ( @joelkeller ) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com , VanityFair.com , Fast Company and elsewhere.

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It Ends with Us

Adapted from the Colleen Hoover novel, Lily overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life. A chance meeting with a neurosurgeon sparks a connection but Lily begins to see sides of ... Read all Adapted from the Colleen Hoover novel, Lily overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life. A chance meeting with a neurosurgeon sparks a connection but Lily begins to see sides of him that remind her of her parents' relationship. Adapted from the Colleen Hoover novel, Lily overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life. A chance meeting with a neurosurgeon sparks a connection but Lily begins to see sides of him that remind her of her parents' relationship.

• Justin Baldoni
• Christy Hall
• Colleen Hoover
• Blake Lively
• Jenny Slate
• 74 User reviews
• 60 Critic reviews
• 54 Metascore

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• Ryle Kincaid

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• All cast & crew
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• Trivia The casting of Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni as Lily and Ryle caused backlash from fans because in the book Lily is 23 and Ryle is 30, while Lively is 35 and Baldoni is 39. Author of the book Colleen Hoover explained in an interview that she wanted to age the characters up in the movie in an effort to correct a mistake she made in the book. She said, "Back when I wrote It Ends With Us, the new adult [genre] was very popular. You were writing college-age characters. That's what I was contracted to do. I made Lily very young. I didn't know that neurosurgeons went to school for 50 years. There's not a 20-something neurosurgeon. As I started making this movie, I'm like, 'We need to age them out, because I messed up.' So, that's my fault."
• Connections Featured in The Project: Episode dated 6 August 2024 (2024)
• Soundtracks Start Me Up Written by August Wisbon Performed by DJ Roc Courtesy of Crucial Music Corporation

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 10 minutes

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Best Build for the Eternal Spear in Hades

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Since it was released in 2019, Hades has come to be regarded as not only one of the best roguelike games but also one of the best indie games to be released in the last decade. From lively characters and beautiful backgrounds to challenging boss fights and great weapon choices, Hades is a phenomenally well-rounded experience that is endlessly replayable. While every player has their own favorite weapon to utilize in the game, very few cite Varatha, The Eternal Spear as their weapon of choice.

Varatha, The Eternal Spear is a tricky weapon to use, as it is both a ranged and a melee weapon. Using every ability that Varatha has is instrumental to its success as a weapon, as it doesn't have the fastest attack or the most damaging special. However, with specific builds, Varatha is still a great choice for Zagreus to take down the enemies of the Underworld with.

Varatha Strengthens Zagreus' Father-Son Bond

Best aspect: aspect of hades.

Hades: Tips and Tricks For Taking on the Pact of Punishment

Hades is one of the most beloved and challenging games in recent memory even before its absurd difficulty settings.

Much like Aegis, the Shield of Chaos , the best aspect choice for Varatha, The Eternal Spear is the original wielder of the weapon, Hades. The Aspect of Hades makes the charge attack for the spear an important ability, as hitting enemies with it will make those enemies take increased damage for the next 10 seconds . This is a unique ability, as it makes Varatha, the Eternal Spear a very versatile weapon, as all of Zagreus' abilities are buffed by this aspect.

While Varatha, The Eternal Spear is primarily focused on dealing damage with swift attacks and dashing away from harm, the Aspect of Hades allows Zagreus to stay in front of enemies and bombard them with a flurry of attacks. This aspect is especially important to get the most out of Varatha's special attack, as it normally does not deal much damage. When paired with boons that buff Zagreus' attack damage and add to its utility, Varatha becomes a great option for Zagreus on his journey out of the underworld.

The King of the Olympians Calls Down a Storm

Best attack boon: zeus (lightning strike).

Much like the Stygian Blade , Varatha's basic attacks are primarily focused on attacking quickly and perfectly positioning behind enemies to deal backstab damage. Furthermore, Varatha is one of the few weapons that has a charge attack that deals damage in a large area, making it easy for Zagreus to attack multiple enemies at once. Therefore, the best boons for Varatha's basic attack maximize its ability to attack multiple enemies and clear waves of enemies rapidly. This makes Zeus' Lightning Strike boon a must-have for a Varatha build.

Zeus' Lighting Strike boon allows for each of Zagreus' basic attacks to send lightning bolts to nearby enemies . This boon makes the most of Zagreus' ability to deal with multiple enemies at once. Furthermore, it also allows players to use Varatha, the Eternal Spear, to deal with faraway enemies. Overall, Lightning Strike deals with pesky enemies like witches by allowing Zagreus to focus on one enemy and also hit other enemies at the same time.

The Goddess of Love Sends Out Long-Distance Attacks

Best special attack boon: aphrodite (heartbreak flourish).

Best Build for The Twin Fists of Malphon in Hades

Zagreus' gauntlets are one of the most interesting weapons to use in Hades.

When compared to the other weapons in Hades , Varatha, the Eternal Spear's special attack is by far the weakest, both in terms of damage and utility. However, its range makes it an effective tool for applying potent status curses on enemies from far away. The best status curse for Varatha is Weak, which makes Aphrodite's Heartbreak Flourish the best boon for Varatha, the Eternal Spear.

While Poseidon's knockback is an enticing ability for Varatha, Aphrodite's weak status effect makes the best of its ability to strike enemies swiftly and accurately . By using Varatha's special attack from long distances, Zagreus can make enemies deal less damage long before they ever reach him. This is especially important to use against the witch enemies in Asphodel and the archer enemies in Elysium. Players should note that Zagreus' special attack with Varatha normally only hits once, so players should avoid boons with stacking status curses and opt for single-use effects like Aphrodite's status curse instead.

The God of Wine is Zagreus' Favorite Party Guest

Best cast boon: dionysus (trippy shot).

Varatha, the Eternal Spear, excels at both close-range and long-range, making it a versatile tool for most situations. Its fast attacks allow Zagreus to strike enemies several times before they can land a hit on him. This becomes even harder for enemies to do if they are disoriented, which means that players should try to get a boon that has a powerful crowd control status curse. Therefore, the optimal choice for a cast boon on Varatha, the Eternal Spear, is Dionysus' Trippy Shot.

Dionysus' Trippy Shot boon allows Zagreus to throw a bottle of liquor at enemies, dealing damage in a large area and affecting enemies with the Hangover status curse , which slows and eventually stuns enemies. When paired with Varatha's flurry of attacks, this boon makes most enemies unable to approach Zagreus. Therefore, players should focus on using this cast as often as possible during encounters, as it allows Zagreus to safely approach enemies without fearing their counterattack.

The Messenger God Empowers Zagreus with Thick Skin

Best dash boon: hermes (hyper sprint).

Best Build for the Heart-Seeking Bow in Hades

Hades has few ranged weapons, but the bow is the more strategic option of the two.

Varatha, the Eternal Spear's greatest strength is its utility and ability to adapt to various different situations. From long-range poke abilities to swift close-range attacks, Varatha is a weapon that is best suited to a variety of boons. This versatility means that utility boons like those of Hermes and Athena have more of an impact in Varatha builds than on builds of higher damage weapons like the Adamant Rail and the Heart-Seeking Bow. Therefore, the best dash boon to select for players looking to wield Varatha, the Eternal Spear, is Hermes' Hyper Sprint.

Hermes' Hyper Sprint gives players a 100% movement speed bonus shortly after dashing, along with making Zagreus sturdy for a short duration. The sturdy buff allows Zagreus to take significantly less damage from enemy attacks , making approaching enemies safer for him. This boon is especially impactful in boss encounters, as players will need to dash several times to defeat difficult fights with Theseus and the Minotaur and the final boss against the titular antagonist, Hades. While dash boons like Athena's may seem enticing for their ability to deflect attacks, Hermes Hyper Sprint is one of the best utility boons in the game, making it the best choice for Varatha, the Eternal Spear.

The Party-Going Greek Deity Joins Zagreus' Side Yet Again

Best call boon: dionysus (dionysus' aid).

Many status curses in Hades , like Demeter's Chill and Aphrodite's Weak, are best applied when far away from enemies, as they give Zagreus time to assess the situation and plan his counterattack. However, some status curses are so versatile that they can be applied from any range and still be a great asset. The best example of these status curses is Dionysus' Hangover status curse, as its ability to stun enemies is useful at any range and provides Zagreus with the upper hand in battle. Therefore, the best call boon to have when using Varatha, the Eternal Spear, is Dionysus' Aid.

Dionysus' Aid summons a pool of festive fog at the location where Zagreus is standing, allowing him to control any area of the area and stun many enemies at a time when used in combination with Dionysus' Trippy Shot cast boon . Through the combination of these two boons, Zagreus is able to place festive fog in every area of the map, allowing players to fight enemies on their own terms and take them down without much of a hassle.

Varatha, the Eternal Spear is a Swift Weapon with Great Utility

Best daedalus hammer: triple jab.

Because of Varatha's versatility, it also has some of the most varied Daedalus Hammers of any weapon in Hades. While some Daedalus Hammers significantly buff Varatha's damage, the spear is nothing without its utility, which makes selecting a utility boon the best choice. Therefore, the best Daedalus Hammer for Varatha, the Eternal Spear, is Triple Jab.

The Triple Jab Daedalus Hammer allows Varatha to send out 3 attacks at once in a spread formation. This makes Zagreus able to target multiple enemies at a close range as well as deal massive damage to bosses with multiple hitboxes , like Theseus and the Minotaur as well as the Lernean Hydra. Overall, Varatha, the Eternal Spear might not be the most popular choice, but its utility still makes it a great selection for taking down Hades and helping Zagreus escape the Underworld.

Hades is a critically acclaimed roguelike video game developed by Supergiant Games, released in 2020. The game follows Zagreus, the son of the Greek god of the underworld, as he attempts to escape his father's domain to reach Mount Olympus. With each escape attempt, players explore randomly generated rooms filled with enemies and receive boons from other Olympian gods, enhancing Zagreus's abilities. The game is celebrated for its compelling storytelling, fluid combat system, and vivid artwork.

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Walz Has Faced Criticism for His Response to George Floyd Protests

Some believe that Gov. Tim Walz should have deployed the Minnesota National Guard sooner when riots broke out following the police murder of George Floyd.

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By Mitch Smith

• Published Aug. 6, 2024 Updated Aug. 8, 2024

A little more than a year into Tim Walz’s first term as governor, he faced his biggest test.

His state, already in the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic, was suddenly in the international spotlight after a Minneapolis police officer was filmed murdering George Floyd in May 2020.

Looting, arson and violence followed, quickly overwhelming the local authorities , and some faulted Mr. Walz for not doing more and not moving faster to bring the situation under control with Minnesota National Guard troops and other state officials.

Two days after Mr. Floyd’s death, with protests in Minneapolis turning increasingly violent, the city’s mayor, Jacob Frey, asked Mr. Walz to deploy the National Guard. Hours later, the city’s police chief submitted a written request for 600 troops. But it was not until the next afternoon that Mr. Walz signed an executive order allowing the Guard to assist cities.

“It was obvious to me that he froze under pressure, under a calamity, as people’s properties were being burned down,” said State Senator Warren Limmer, a Republican who helped lead a committee that investigated the response to the unrest. He suggested that Mr. Walz’s personal sympathies toward protesters might have delayed a muscular response.

Mr. Walz, a Democrat who has been chosen as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, has since defended his actions during those days, saying he and others in state government were acting in good faith amid unimaginable circumstances.

“I simply believe that we try to do the best we can ,” Mr. Walz said recently at a news conference when asked about his response to the riots.

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