Duff's Duff Movie
Lane Daniels (Hilary Duff - Greta) has always had an ambition to be a journalist for Cosmo and she gets a chance when the editor, Kate White (Jaime Pressly - Smoke Screen), offers her the opportunity to write the cover story. But in order to do so Lane needs to first secure herself a job in the world of finance and then go on a series of dates with guys looking to find themselves a Mrs. Right. But along the way, whilst she lives a lie and dates all these guys, it makes her realise something about herself.
It would be a lie if I said like the majority of men I didn't have some favourite actresses, some because of their acting talents others because of the air they give off and, yes, some because of how they look, I am human. Hilary Duff is one of those actresses who I like partly because of her looks but also the air of cuteness she gives off when she does romantic comedy. And it is mostly the cuteness which Duff gives the character of Lane Daniel which kept me watching "Beauty & the Briefcase", a shallow romantic comedy which tries to imitate other movies with the use of inner voice narration and over the top stereotypes, but sadly this comes up short.
In truth "Beauty & the Briefcase" is so vacuous, yes vacuous, that it reminded me one of one of those cartoons when the guy holds the phone away from his ear and we hear "mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah" come screeching out of the earpiece. The thing is that in between imitating other movies in its style and ridiculous over the top stereotypes, which includes a ridiculously British stereotype thrown in there, it soon becomes annoying. The daft thing is that I don't have an objection to the falseness it presents of the upwardly mobile young woman who gets through life on her looks and charm, that can be amusing, but this doesn't have any control over it so that whilst inevitably there will be some meaning to this nonsense, as Lane learns certain things about what is really important to her, it is hard work getting through it.
Now what is the most shocking thing about "Beauty & the Briefcase" is not the shallowness and the painfulness of the stereotypes but the fact this movie was reportedly nominated for an award. So okay in fairness it is a "People's Choice Award" rather than an "Oscar" but even so it is hard to believe there weren't other more notable movies which could have been nominated.
What this all boils down to is that "Beauty & the Briefcase" is a painful and shallow experience which despite featuring the likeable Hilary Duff is incredibly annoying and painful to watch.
