Disappointing Display The Draw For Hugh Grant’s New Movie Seems To Be The Scandal Of His Recent Arrest

Amazing, how a bit of real-life notoriety can transform a monotonous movie performance into something everybody’s keen on seeing. Or leering at, as the case may be.

Hugh Grant, who has seemed such a winner in the very British films “Four Weddings and a Funeral” (1994) and “The Englishman Who Went up a Hill…” (1995), proves ill-suited to Hollywood stardom in “Nine Months.”

The lone appeal of this blandly written, overacted muddle seems to lie in the separate uproar involving Grant’s arrest June 27 in connection with his allegedly engaging the alleged services of an alleged Hollywood prostitute. Audiences have responded with lewd hollers every time a coming-attractions trailer plays, and a subgenre of feebly amusing joke-titles has cropped up (example: “Nine Months’ Probation”). One preview audience last week treated the film as virtual voyeurism, forcibly reading double meanings into Grant’s every line.

Such hubbub may make the film seem funnier, but it deprives “Nine Months” of the dignity of sinking or swimming on merit. Writer-director Chris Columbus is a sincere artist - the “Home Alone” pictures notwithstanding - who has proved himself capable of courage with “Mrs. Doubtfire” (1993) and its open challenge to the rigid traditionalism of the “nuclear family” image.

But “Nine Months” is mere crowd-pleasing fluff, with scarcely enough substance to matter. Columbus’ idea of deep irony is to give the Grant character, who becomes so leery of the prospect of parenthood, a career as a child psychologist.

Samuel Faulkner (Grant), despite a longstanding romantic commitment, panics when his sweetheart (Julianne Moore) informs him she is pregnant. He tries to play the part of the dedicated father-to-be, but self-centered anxiety gets the better of him, and she walks out.

Reconciliation comes too predictably, too soon, with Grant’s supplicating dialogue guaranteed to elicit inappropriate guffaws: “I was a disgrace,” he admits in a scene shot months ago. The trailer for “Nine Months” contains footage suggesting Grant’s character gets thrown in jail; no such moment occurs in the movie. The arrest scene comes from one of Grant’s nightmare sequences that did not make this final cut.

On the brighter side, Robin Williams - Mrs. Doubtfire him/herself - turns in a hilarious extended cameo as an immigrant doctor whose practice so far has been confined to the veterinary field. Julianne Moore is a rock of stability compared with Grant’s flighty character.

Grant simply tries too hard to convey discomfort, and all that fidgeting and mugging wear out their welcome quickly. This debit, coupled with a story (Americanized from a French film) that only reinforces the status quo, makes for a disappointing follow-through for Columbus and a disappointing Hollywood bow for Grant.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: “Nine Months” Location: East Sprague, Lyons and Coeur d’Alene cinemas Credits: Directed by Chris Columbus, starring Hugh Grant, Robin Williams, Julianne Moore, Joan Cusack and Jeff Goldblum Running time: 1:47 Rating: PG-13