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List Price: $12.98 | | Label: Paramount
Salesrank: 11383
Released: March 7, 2006 |
| Our Price: $39.99 |
| Used Price: $6.29 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
In Nashville, there are 10,000 singer-songwriters chasing success... with one chance in a million of getting it. For Miranda "no relation to Elvis" Presley (Samantha Mathis), that's one chance worth taking. Fresh from New York City, Miranda befriends three fellow hopefuls: shy Connecticut cowboy Kyle Davidson (Dermot Mulroney); Southern belle Linda Lue Linden (Sandra Bullock); and James Wright (River Phoenix), a cocky Texan with brooding good looks and a honeyed voice. Together they begin a rocky ride down Music City's well-worn highway, finding hope, heartbreak, happiness... and The Thing Called Love. Featuring songs and appearances by country music's hottest stars, The Thing Called Love will grab you like a great melody.
Description of The Thing Called Love (Director's Cut):
If there was a universal collective, albeit repressed, dream, it would probably be to become a successful singer. People would take that singing in the car, singing in the shower, and even singing in the rain, and have it be their life's love and work. The Thing Called Love uses this popular aspiration as its setting and examines the lives of four young people hoping to make it in the country music universe. At the center is earnest Miranda Presley--no relation--(Samantha Mathis), the pretty but untalented Linda Lue (Sandra Bullock), the intense and talented James (River Phoenix), and the sweet and prolific Kyle (Dermont Mulroney). Popular country stars make appearances: K.T. Oslin (as Lucy, the owner of the Bluebell, where open-mike auditions are held), Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Katy Moffatt, Jo-El Sonnier, Pam Tillis, Kevin Welch, and even Trisha Yearwood. The film's not merely focused on the rich musical milieu and its talented cast. It also carefully examines the dynamic between friends who are also competitors, as well as a realistic love triangle between the leads. The Thing Called Love is primarily known as one of River Phoenix's last performances, but even if curiosity alone brings audiences to the movie, they'll soon be drawn into the fresh tale of four young people pursuing their dreams. --N.F. Mendoza
The Thing Called Love (Director's Cut) Reviews:
You could have had me for a song 
2009-11-28 - The story is as old as the hills. Two men love one woman, like John Wayne and James Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, pilgrim. Only here in The Thing Called Love it's River Phoenix and Dermot Mulroney fighting over Samantha Mathis, and for comic relief, throw in some Sandra Bullock. Oh, yeah, all four have come to Nashville to make it in Country Music, where they meet at auditions for the Blue Bird Cafe. Not exactly the Ryman Auditorium, but a lot of Country Music stars got their start there.
Director Peter Bogdanovich is best known for The Last Picture Show, which was one of his early films. Years later he was quoted as saying, "Remember me? I used to be Peter Bogdanovich." The Last Picture Show could have been called The Last Truly Great Picture Show from Peter Bogdanovich. In 1998 the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress named The Last Picture Show to the National Film Registry, an honor awarded only to the most culturally significant films. He has had some spectacular failures and other modest success since then, but has done better as a film historian and writer than he has done as a director. One theory is that he doomed himself when he ditched his wife, set designer Polly Platt, for 19-year old model Cybill Shepherd, whom he met at The Last Picture Show. This theory credits Polly with being the controlling artistic consciousness of his best films, Paper Moon (1973) being the last one she worked on. He later starred Cybill in two of his biggest flops: Daisy Miller and At Long Last Love. A latter affair with 1980 Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten ended in her being tragically killed by her jealous manager/husband, a story told in the Bob Fosse film Star 80.
In spite of all this baggage, someone thought he would be great for The Thing Called Love. When he asked River Phoenix to do it, to his surprise, he wanted to do it. Maybe he was attracted to the musical aspect. It was not really a starring role, more of an ensemble piece with the main focus on the Miranda Presley character. Once River Phoenix was on board the project fell in place, and along with the other cast members, a lot of Country Music stars agreed to take part, in various cameos playing themselves.
River Phoenix played a very talented but edgy songwriter. He was on the verge of success, but whenever he got too close he'd find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. River, and the rest of the cast, either wrote or contributed to most all the songs used. One of the songs River wrote, Lone Star State of Mine, was very good, maybe a little too poetic and esoteric to actually be a hit song, but he showed promise. He grew up busking all over the US, and played in bands, and it showed. He was right at home on stage with a guitar. River Phoenix was kind of twitching and strange like his brother Joaquin on Letterman, but was he ever in character. When Bogdanovich met him, he thought he was this edgy guy, because he would really get into character and stay there like Andy Kaufman as Tony Clifton, but then after the film wrapped he found that he wasn't that guy at all. He was Huckleberry Finn, a real amiable and likeable guy. Makes you wonder what would have happened if he hadn't ODed. He could have been astronomical.
Samantha Mathis was the lead, though she had to fight the course of a mighty river to stay there. Samantha played Miranda Presley, no relation. Presley was her middle name, given to her by a father who was a huge Elvis fan. Though Miranda was from New York City, Country music was in her blood. Samantha was so good in this movie. She sang country really well, and was always very authentic and believable. She did the singing, the song writing, and lest we forget, the acting. Of course the acting was the crux of the matter, but the singing and song writing also impressed me. Especially the singing.
On the other hand, not so great at singing was Kyle Davidson (Dermot Mulroney). He was a Connecticut Yankee, and he didn't really fit in Nashville, but he tried harder. Mulroney is an accomplished cellist, and The Thing Called Loved allowed him to show off his cello chops. Though his character was not such a great singer, his character was a better writer, and when he has Miranda cut a demo of one of his songs, it sounds great. They concoct a crazy scheme to get Trisha Yearwood to hear it. It's so crazy it just might work. And work it does, when he hears it on the radio for the first time:
[Kyle runs into back of a guy's car and a crowd gathers]
Driver: Didn't you see the stop sign?
Kyle Davidson: That's my song!
Driver: Well, that's my car!
Kyle Davidson: That's my song playing on the radio!
Driver: You wrote that song?
Kyle Davidson: Yeah!
Bystander: You're a better songwriter than you are a driver.
Kyle Davidson: That's my song!
Bystander: That song's all right.
Kyle Davidson: Kinda makes ya wanna pat your foot, doesn't it?
Bystander: You shoulda patted the brake one time.
Kyle Davidson: That's my song!
Bystander: You got two hits in one day!
Sandra Bullock has long been an undervalued commodity, who is finally getting a little respect. I hear she rules in her latest, The Blind Side, and was also quite an effective comedienne in The Proposal with Ryan Reynolds. She was sublime in this movie as the kind of person Blanche Dubois was talking about when she said she'd always depended on the kindness of strangers. She was always helping other people achieve their dreams, but neglecting her own. Of the four hopefuls, she would be voted least likely to succeed in Nashville, but she did succeed in creating a very warm though quirky character called Linda Lue Linden.
The Thing Called Love cost 14 Million dollars, but it only made 1 million. It was the least financially successful film of 1993--a huge box office flop, but was it a bad movie?
NO!!!!!!!!!!
Bottom line is it was actually a very good movie about Nashville, songwriters, and it was River Phoenix's last role. I would have given it 5 stars, just to offset the bad box office and lack of acclaim, but let's be reasonable and give it 4 stars. But a very solid four stars. The title was kind of lackluster, and the marketing fell short, but if you would just watch the film, give it a chance, you'll love The Thing Called Love.
The Proposal (Single Disc Widescreen) (2009) Sandra Bullock was Margaret Tate
The Wedding Date (Widescreen Edition) (2005) Dermot Mulroney was Nick Mercer
Two Weeks Notice (2002) Sandra Bullock was Lucy Kelson
Living in Oblivion (1995) Dermot Mulroney was Wolf
How to Make an American Quilt (1995) Samantha Mathis was Young Sophia Darling Richards and Dermot Mulroney was Sam
Dogfight (1991) River Phoenix was Eddie Birdlace
My Own Private Idaho (1991) River Phoenix was Mike Waters
Running on Empty (1988) River Phoenix was Danny Pope / Michael Manfield
Paper Moon (1973) Directed by Peter Bogdanovich
The Last Picture Show (Definitive Director's Cut Special Edition) (1971) Directed by Peter Bogdanovich
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Linda Lue Linden: You Know Kyle Davidson, there's something you never knew about me.
Kyle Davidson: What's that?
Linda Lue Linden: [she kisses him] You could have had me for a song
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charlotte lmp 
2009-10-31 - I was happy to watch The Thing Called Love , River Phoenix's last completed film work. It was not his absolute best work as many of his other 12 feature films had been, but a few scenes in the film caught the beauty of River external and internal, he seemed to be struggling very hard to focus and his physical appearance had taken a drastic change , but those of us who followed his career could see in this film the actor was and had been the very best of our Generation X . His last role of James Wright allowed him to be a musician ,play and sing as was a great love for River, the human being. He was above all a human being living in this world , he left very early , left us with a small body of work for old and new followers to discover his beautiful talent from his 1st feature film Explorers to his last theatrical release Silent Tongue and everything River Phoenix had done in his lifetime. Discover or rediscover River Phoenix's work again , let's not focus so much on how he died, but how he lived and the film work he left for us to view, past, present, and future followers of his great work. He has been gone exactly 16 years today , October 31, 2009. Let us who enjoyed his completed work watch it again and remember the talented work of River Phoenix forever.
mean mistreating loving heart
2009-07-07 - So what ever happened to Samantha Mathis?
All phoney baloney about country song writers and
Sandra Bullock was completely forgettable in this.
Dermot Mulroney ( the second best actor in the bunch)
is so little country that the good hat looks bad on him.
As a musical, the songs are all just country standards reused?
So the lead girl (Samantha Mathis) made this movie.
River Phoenix is just ugly and a loser
playing a loser?
I kind of liked the movie as it came out true for me,
as it seems women have this kind of taste in men anyway?
The last light of River Phoenix 
2009-05-31 - Had this talented young actor not died at such a ripe age I don't think this movie would be the cult classic it is today.
You can't seem to take your eyes off Phoenix in this film and wonder what could have been.
The story is basic. A girl comes to Nashville with a guitar and a dream.
She meets three other young people searching for their own dream. Kyle is in love with Miranda. James and Miranda are in love with each other. Linda is in love with Kyle.
I like that Miranda chose to not so safe choice and went with her heart, and yet you can't help but feel for Kyle.
Some would say Kyle deserved her more, but in the end James needed her more.
Country Music is a big part of this movie with a wonderful cameo by the great Trisha Yearwood.
This movie is funny, sweet, romantic, heartbreaking, endearing and full of life.
Sad that it did not to well when it was first realeased.
Over-rated
2009-02-02 - This was River Phoenix's first adult role, but it's nothing to write home about. Sandra Bullock was new here, too, and you'd never suspect she'd become a big star from this. It's a country-western boy/girl love triangle with some just ok music performed by the actors themselves. Reminds me a bit of "Urban Cowboy." It's not terrible in any way, but why it's a bit of a cult fave, I'm not too sure, other than for the last look at the soon-to-OD Phoenix.
