Posted by Sal at pm388-27.dialip.mich.net on March 23, 2001 at 12:44:13:
Don't know if this was posted but there is a review for Lee's new movie Heartbreakers. It is posted at salon.com and has some nice things to say about both the movie and Lee. Haven't seen it myself. Here is the Lee part:
Page's tough-gal routine gets put to the test when Mama's worst fears prove to be right. In the course of setting up the scam on Hackman's tobacco tycoon, Page falls for Jack (Jason Lee), a young man trying to fend off the offers of land developers and make a go of the pleasingly ramshackle bar his old man left him. You can tell from the way Page treats Jack like dirt -- in romantic comedy tradition -- that they're made for each other. And Lee, who nearly stole the spotlight from Billy Crudup as the chief sex symbol in "Almost Famous," gives a comic-romantic leading man performance unlike any that I can recall.
There are usually two choices open to the actor playing a man in love with a woman who claims to despise him: patsy or brute. Lee, who has a great smile, doesn't go either route. Jack takes one piece of grief after another from Page, but Lee never allows him to become her whipping boy. It's an almost offhand performance -- cool, casual and yet generous. Lee is one of the new breed of young leading men who are content to cede space to their female costars. It's a smart move. He's setting off Hewitt here, but his graciousness, and his underplayed sexiness, reflect back on him.
ciao, sal