I totally lost track of this movie, but I thought it was still being filmed, so color me surprised when the premiere happened last night. This means we should probably discuss the trailer:

Nicole was a very controversial casting choice, although I am not among the people who thinks Debra Messing should have done it. This trailer does not paint a picture of a movie in which Lucy needs to be zany all the time; it has a more serious bent, and Debra can get really hammy. I find the trailer a little confusing as to what it IS about, but mostly, I get lost in Nicole’s face. The tricks with makeup they had to do, particularly around her eyes and eyebrows, are really distracting to me — arguably more so than her accent may turn out to be (can she please next do a string of movies where she’s using her regular voice?). It’s not like they did anything to Javier Bardem to turn his face into Desi Arnaz’s; they basically just gave up and let him look like Javier Bardem, meaning alllll that visual pressure lands squarely on Nicole. That doesn’t seem fair. For her sake I hope she’s awesome in the movie and shows all of us doubters where to stick it, but in the meantime… I can’t actually decide who I do think could have slid into that part and inhabited it in a way that was less “Look At This Famous Person In Distracting Lucy Makeup.” Amy Adams? She could’ve gotten away with the Javier Bardem Strategy of Let’s Just Leave Things As They Are. She actually might’ve been really good.

[Photos: Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock]