Coyote Ugly

A fun movie that gets you grooving with good music and some pretty impressive dancing and barwork antics.

Small town (New Jersey) girl and hopeful songwriter, Violet (Piper Perabo) moves to New York to hopefully make it in the music industry. She quickly finds polite doesn’t work and that the city and its inhabitants are ‘harder’ than she thought.

After her flat is broken into and her spare cash stolen, Violet goes to an all night café and sees some good looking girls (played by Izabella Miko, Bridget Moynahan and Tyra Banks) with plenty of cash, still in partying mode, farewelling one of their number. She finds out they are “coyotes” and she tracks down the Coyote Ugly club and proprietor, in the hope of a job to boost her dwindling resources. The proprietor, Lil (Maria Bello) gives her a chance and literally throws her into the deep end.

Violet has no idea what the whole idea of the bar is and is somewhat shocked to find that she has to be rough, tough, fun and sexy and the requirements of the job include barmaid AND dancing on the bar for the entertainment of the patrons. The bar comes across as one big party with everything at high speed all the time. The “Coyotes” themselves vary considerably – everything from mean to sexy to coquettish. The boss, Lil is tough but encouraging of her ‘girls’.

One music industry employee advises her to attend an open-mic night – where industry talent scouts often go. She attends one club to make enquiries and sees a good looking bloke, Kevin (after all he IS Australian, so I will use the Aussie vernacular here!), played by Adam Garcia of “Bootmen” fame. After a case of confused identities and a bit of old fashioned persistence by the good looking Kevin, they become a couple.

Violet reveals to Kevin that she has a problem singing her songs in public – and as their relationship develops, Kevin does a lot to encourage Violet out of this mindset.

At the bar one night, a fight breaks out with a “Coyote” unable to get out of the fray, and in desperation Violet gets up and sings a song along to the jukebox. Everyone is so shocked that the fight stops, the "Coyote" is saved from harm and Violet has a regular “gig” on the bar singing along to other’s songs.

I had better not tell you anymore to ruin it for you all, but be assured it has a happy ending!

Violet’s dad is played by John Goodman, and he makes a very good single-dad who plays brave and hurt as required. Piper Perabo plays Violet very believably although I did find her accent or ‘twang’ grated just a little by the end of the movie. Adam Garcia is good looking, plays the part of Kevin from the heart and there is a bit of a connection between him and Piper which is nice to see. Mario Bello plays Lil to perfection and the “Coyotes” are beautiful, sexy and great dancers, as they should be!

One to enjoy without having to think too much.