David O'Connell
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
September 24th 2008 22:55
The movie was saved by a complex performance by Meryl Streep, but, ultimately, the movie felt predictable and aggrandizing of the fashion industry. Nevertheless, audiences were wowed by a hand-held ironic chuckle at the foibles of the silly fashion world, while allowed a awe-gaped peek at the bright lights of the big city.
"How to Lose Friends & Alienate People" might easily be renamed as "A Devil Wears Prada" made by the British. The structure of the movie is eerily similar, with gender reversed and the occupation slightly offset. Simon Pegg plays Sidney Young, a grungy, obnoxious journalist from the UK, who gets hired by a prominent celebrity magazine in New York.
He arrives, dressed worse than everyone else, looking to inject some new life into the magazine. The editor, played by Jeff Bridges, is Meryl Streep's equivalent and played with a similar sense of out-of-body weariness that seems to infect all editors in movies.
Jeff Bridges manages to knock out his role with the gruff demeanour and sad regret that comes with his position as the enabler of celebrity fame; for the tiny fraction of screen time he occupies, the movie almost reaches above the clouds. Pegg and Bridges sitting in the office - that had the potential to be illuminary.
Pegg is, still, one of the best modern comedy actors, having mastered the funny look and the clumsy, stumbling walk. He broke open in a cult comedy series called Spaced in the UK, and went on to star in two very satirical movies, "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz"; the British sense of humour is perfect for Pegg, who delivers his lines with that precise English timing.
With a script that derails to New York City, predictably ambling without decent dialogue, Pegg is reduced to mugging to the camera and throwing quips. His sole goal is to sleep with an actress played by Megan Fox, who is a vapid caricature of Megan Fox. Luckily, it's all very amusing, and, at times, outrageous.
Like "The Devil Wears Prada", "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" is based on a book based on real life events. Similarly, we get to see glitzy celebrity hangouts, cameos, exclusive clubs, a glass-shattering array of fine suits, expensive watches and Manhattan apartments.
Kirsten Dunst plays one of Young's colleagues, and they get off on the wrong foot as soon as they meet. She hates him which, in romantic comedy terms, means that there's no other outcome except for them to fall in love together. Unlike female leads in classic romantic comedies, Dunst has neither the grace nor the talent to appear as anything but a whiny, silly character - the audience understands that Young will fall for her, but we ask why?
As a comedy, "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" is full of slapstick, silly lines and one particularly vulgar moment. It was enough to keep the audience in stitches, and it's sufficiently entertaining to watch. Will you remember it? Probably not, especially as it blends in seamlessly with all the other identical movies about working your way to the top and learning to dress really well.
I say: The movie is likely to do well enough, with a wide array of stars and fabulous locations.
See it for: The older actors have this sown up: Jeff Bridges plays the editor of the magazine, and he's perfect in every role I seem him in. A surprise is Gillian Anderson, who plays a publicist and is surprisingly convincing, not to mention free with voluminous flesh from her cleavage.
*this image is from Dan's Media Digest
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