Writer & Director James L Brooks has a very sure touch when it comes to movies. I'll do anything was conceived as an old fashioned musical and parody of actor's lifestyles and film clichés.Test audiences were not impressed with the film and at the time musical films were out of fashion. I presume the songs were actually rubbish which tends to be the case with a lot of musical films.Re-cut and re-edited, this is now a straight story with Nick Nolte, playing Matt Hobbs, a once promising actor who has not managed to get a regular acting gig in some time, ends up driving around an arrogant film producer (Albert Brooks).Things take a turn when his ex-wife dumps their daughter Jeannie on Matt for what he thinks is for a few weeks but turns out to be longer as she is off to jail. His daughter is used to getting her own way and he is not used to fatherhood.His career may have some brightness as he gets friendly with with attractive production assistant (Joely Richardson) who has a script idea and thinks Matt could be the lead actor.The film was hampered from the start with its production troubles. Nick Nolte does well as a down on his luck actor with a brat of daughter and trying to bond with her whilst dealing with machinations of the film industry.Where Brooks succeeded so well when he turned his eye on TV news with Broadcast News, the story here is not strong enough and although the actors try hard the film comes off as hollow.

One of Nolte's best roles i'd say. Impressive debut by Whittni Wright. She apparently only made one other film (Van Damme's "sudden death" the following year). Can't believe that's all she's done since. I heard that the film was originally a musical. Later it was then chopped down to cut the musical numbers totally out aside from a short song by Whittni to her dad. Still works as a nice father daughter get to know each other story mixed with the chronicles of an on the cusp of fame actor. As they get to know each other the daughter shows a dramatic prowess that impresses her actor dad, and moves another character to nudge her into the business. Would love to see the missing musical numbers at some point. Is this summation long enough yet?. Is it ten lines? Not Yet? How bout now?

I saw this movie recently on cable TV and liked it a lot . I was looking for something other than the usual action/shootout/special effect types and ended up selecting this one. I'm glad I did. The supporting actors were excellent and Nick Nolte & Whittni Wright were outstanding in their roles. It was refreshing to see Nolti do this type of thing, although I'm not surprised that he did it well. He's an actor who has, over time, honed his skills to an art form. I'm not sure that he is appreciated as much as he should be. Anyway, in my opinion, "I'll do Anything" is underrated here. I give this flick a high mark and hope that my participation in the "vote" will raise the average score of this fine movie. For those who have had their fill of movies that focus on violence, try this delightful James L Brooks production for a change of pace. Or if you simply want to watch a movie that entertains... go for this one.

Spoilers herein.There's a remarkably intelligent film hidden in here. I love watching old Welles films and trying to imagine the parts that the studios hacked out. And so here. The original idea was to have a deeply self-aware film, moreso than `The Player.' It was to have leveraged the shift inherent in a film musical : at some times, the audience is invited to see the story as representative of life, and at other times as representative of a show. Brooks puts tons of this stuff in `The Simpsons' and one can see the notion in his other TeeVee projects as well.But as I gather, this was actually supposed to be intelligent. Prince at this point was into self-referential songs and apparently increased the folding of an already baroque structure of who's looking at who. But (as with Welles), the studio financiers thought the paying audience was too dumb for all that, so brought in script doctor Elaine May (She of `Ishtar,' but nonetheless famously valuable as an invisible fixer).She straightened this film out so that a moron could understand it. Now it is not about the film business, but an ordinary sop about a dad discovering his precocious daughter. But you can see the joints where clever stuff might have been and the notion that parenting is a performance.They have kept one memorable Nolte moment. He is preparing to transform to a role. Watch how he changes, and also plays the meta-actor managing that change, and at the same time plays Nolte creating all three. It is his finest moment on film. I wonder if we will ever see the original version?Ted's Rating -- 2 of 4: Has some interesting elements.