How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
PLOT:
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People tracks the escapade of Sidney Young (Simon Pegg), a smalltime, bumbling, aspiring British celebrity journalist who is hired by an upscale magazine in New York City. He tries to enter a party with a pig, pretending it is the pig of a sequel of the film Babe, but is refused. He locks it in his hotel room and goes to the afterparty, but when the room is serviced the pig escapes to the party where it runs rampant. Due to this incident Sidney catches the attention of Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges), editor of Sharps magazine, and accepts a job with the magazine in New York City. Clayton warns Sidney that he’d better charm everyone he can, if he wants to succeed. Instead, Sidney instantly insults and annoys fellow writer Alison Olsen (Kirsten Dunst). He dares to target the star clients of power publicist Eleanor Johnson (Gillian Anderson). He upsets his direct boss Lawrence Maddox (Danny Huston), and tries to make amends by hiring a stripper (Charlotte Devaney) to dance for Lawrence during a staff meeting. Sidney, of course, doesn’t stop there, finding creative ways to annoy nearly everyone. His saving grace: a rising model Sophie Maes (Megan Fox) who develops an odd affection for him, and in time, Alison’s friendship might be the only thing saving Sidney from torpedoing his career.
REVIEW:
Films based on books tend to do well more of ten than not, especially if they are done well. However, this film just seemed to lack something, I’m not sure what, that the book had.
Simon Pegg’s dry British humor just didn’t seem to work in this film. I don’t think it was his fault, but rather the fact that this role was just not meant for him. Perhaps I’m the only one that thinks that, but for me he seemed a bit out of place.
Megan Fox capitalizes on her sex appeal in this film, but even though she gets alot of screentime, her character isn’t very well developed. She is almost strictly eye candy in this film, but, speaking strictly as a male, there is nothing wrong with that.
Kirsten Dunst may have had the best part in this film. Her character is introduced as what the audience can assume as some sort of uber-bitch, but as th film progresses, she softens up. My problem with this is that many of Dunst’s roles seem to be following this route these days. Is she being typecast, or just stuck in a rut?
Jeff Bridges must have done this film before Iron Man, because he looks much skinnier than does in that film. Of course, it could be the other way around. Who knows? This is a pretty good role for him, but not his best work. He didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the cast, but that may have been because other than Pegg, he really had no scenes with any of them.
There was one part of the film that really made no sense. Out of the blue, Sidney’s dad in introduced, and then just as soon he’s gone, save for a quick scene at the end. I was left scratching my head about that, wondering how that had anything to do with the story. Same goes for Mrs. Maddox. Why introduce these characters if nothing is going ot become of them.
This film was called the male version of The Devil Wears Prada. I can kind of see how that comparison can be made, but I just couldn’t get into this film. I tried, but there were parts where I found myself looking at my watch wondering how much longer it was until the hurting would stop. That’s not say this is a bad film. It actually is pretty good, but I just couldn’t sink my teeth into it. Don’t let my lack of enthusiasm about this film deter you from seeing it, though. Each person is different, so you have to see it to make your own decisions.
3 out of 5 stars
