Bumbling Brit writer Sidney Young (Simon Pegg) moves to New York where he struggles to fit in with the exclusive crowd of a Vanity Fair-esque magazine.
His boss (Jeff Bridges) thinks he's an idiot, his colleague (Kirsten Dunst) thinks he's an idiot, a big time celebrity PR guru (Gillian Anderson) thinks he's an idiot. The only person who likes him even slightly is a youthful, sexy star on the rise (Megan Fox). So life's not all bad then.
This fish out of water comedy is loosely based on the revealing memoirs of now London based journalist Toby Young. We say 'loosely' because quite frankly most of it is just made up.
They say:
Empire: “An enjoyable and often funny look at a mad, mad, mad, mad world.”
Total Film: “Cheap gags and a thoroughly unpleasant hero.”
Variety: “Cleverly titled but noxious British comedy.”
We say:
How To Lose Friends and Alienate People is not a satire of the spurious journalistic world of the Condé Nast 'nasties', instead it's an amiable, fish out of water comedy that makes star Simon Pegg look like a genius and director Robert B Weide a bit of a softy.
Actually genius might be overselling it a smidge, but Pegg is so darn perfect at playing misguided oaf Sidney Young that he can even kill a dog on screen and we don't care.
With a persona so quintessentially British he could, after massive reconstructive surgery, pass as the new David Niven. This film won't make Pegg in Tinseltown, but they'll still love him. Weide's gentle poking fun at their party playground has ensured that no bridges have been burned.
The character Pegg plays is ripe for comic potential, yet the script could have been sharper by reducing his pratfalling and upping the sly digs. Moreover Young himself is somewhat of an acquired taste.
You'll either warm to his messy eating habits and socks 'n' sandals sartorial disasters or you'll want to kick him off the Empire State Building. Much as his weary, conflicted boss Jeff Bridges, certainly the most deep and interesting character here, reacts to him throughout.
Megan Fox's desperate starlet pops up several times. If she's your cup of tea you'll certainly not be disappointed when she strips to her Agent Provocateurs and pouts harder than a post-op transsexual. Gillian Anderson and Kirsten Dunst have even less meat on their cliché written parts.
Anderson's publicist who doesn't like to be called a publicist wears a dress that would make her blush at a cleavage convention. This overt display means nothing to the plot, but perhaps exemplifies a theory that all three women are eye candy for guys in a girl's movie. They don’t say that on the poster, but they don't say this is a romantic comedy either, which it clearly is.
The story goes pop as the first hour encroaches, when Sidney gets all he desires and loathes in equal measure - the flash apartment, flash nightclubs, flash totty on tap.
Then before you get chance to baulk at the brazen pretentiousness of a finale set to an open air showing of La Dolce Vita, Weide has gone all Four Weddings and a Funeral and attempted to makeover Pegg as the ginger Hugh Grant. It's as soppy and superficial as the celebrity worthlessness the film is supposed to be lampooning.
How To Lose Friends... is another step up the Hollywood ladder for its star, though unfortunately packs about as much punch as a Cliff Richard autobiography.
CAST
Simon Pegg
Kirsten Dunst
Jeff Bridges
Gillian Anderson
Megan Fox
DIRECTOR
Robert B Weide
TIME
110 mins
POSTED...
Tue 7 Oct at 12:31pm
