Shortcut to Happiness
Shortcut to Happiness
Directed by:
Alec BaldwinCinematography:
Adam HolenderComposer:
Christopher YoungCast:
Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Dan Aykroyd, Kim Cattrall, John Savage, Jason Patric, Bobby Cannavale, Amy Poehler, Barry Miller (more)Plots(1)
Alec Baldwin, Anthony Hopkins, Kim Cattrall, Dan Aykroyd, and Jennifer Love Hewitt star in this re-imagining of Walter Huston's The Devil and Daniel Webster - this time concerning a struggling writer who sells his soul to Old Scratch (Hewitt) in a desperate bid to find fame and fortune on the literary circuit. (official distributor synopsis)
Reviews (2)
The roots of the book that this was adapted from can be found with Faust and Washington Irving, with follow-up work in Archibald MacLeish and the musical "Scratch." Among the film adaptations, All That Money Can Buy (1941), which adapts Benet's Faust for the first time, is worthy of note. A now we finally get Shortcut to Happiness? It's not a very good debut from Baldwin as a director. The tug-of-war with the producers was apparently meant to result in a second Bedazzled. Although this does have an all-star cast, especially the excellent and devilish Jenn Love, the story will have to wait for another adaptation to be sufficiently rehabilitated.
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A dumb variation on a Faustian tale aimed at Americans, so (and this can't possibly be a spoiler) it must have a happy ending. Perhaps the most striking thing about Shortcut to Happiness is the direct proportion "the better the actor, the more boring they are".
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