Danny Boyle: Ranking His Films From Worst To Best

8. A Life Less Ordinary (1997)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6K5q72jy9c A Life Less Ordinary is a Boyle film I saw only recently, and had heard so much bad about it that my expectations couldn't have been lower. The film stars Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz, and has McGregor's character, a janitor, end up kidnap his boss's daughter (Diaz) after he is fired from his job and replaced by a robot. Diaz's character then encourages him to ransom her, while two fallen angels try to ensure that the two fall for each other. If that didn't make a lick of sense, that's because it really doesn't. Like just about every Boyle film - even the bad ones - A Life Less Ordinary looks great even if the narrative's a bit of a mess. It's surprisingly dull in places though Boyle compensates for this by directing like his life depends on it; some might call it over-direction, but it makes the film a lot easier to sit through. Certainly not without its charms and far from Boyle's worst, it's still much further from his best.