Beauty & the Briefcase

I found this movie to be surprising. Well, of course I had my initial reservations about the movie in advance, being a chick flick and having Hillary Duff in it and all. But still, this movie turned out to be kind of alright.

The story, well, or what is supposed to be the story, is kind of far fetched, and a bit too quirky. But you get to live with that, because the actual story becomes part of the background fairly quickly.

What drives this movie are the characters, and the inevitable thing that you know will happen at the end - and it does! You quickly get immersed in the characters, and they are fairly nicely portrayed from everyone involved.

I actually found Hillary Duff, Matt Dallas and Michael McMillian to do quite a good job here. And I am not really much of a fan of Hillary Duff, but she pulled this one off nicely enough.

Of course, this sassy kind of romantic movie is intended to a female teen audience, and if you fall into that category, this movie would go straight home with you. I found the movie, however, to be fairly entertaining, though it is not a movie I will watch a second time around.

For a movie of this caliber, it is not too shabby, though it is sassy!

I cannot believe I've even wasted 45 minutes to watch what I hate. I don't mind predictable movies, but this is just ridiculously dumb.

Liam's "accent" is terrible..terrible...terrible...so hard to watch this movie because that character sucks.

Further, the Liam character is not cute and he looks the same in every movie he has been in!

Jamie Pressly was the highlight of the movie and Hilary Duff is quite annoying.

Another annoying thing was the way they portrayed the men in the movie as idiots falling all over her..yuck.

ABC Family should be ashamed of themselves for such a bad movie!

'' Beauty And The Briefcase '' is a romantic comedy of the 2000's and has those vibes of an easy to watch movie. Sure, the plot isn't groundbreaking or even logical at times, but, for what it promises, it serves. It is light, it has its funny moments, it has some romance, some girlfriend action, an office setting, a magazine setting (of course it wouldn't have been a romantic comedy of the 2000's if it didn't), and some fluff.

The performances were good enough as well, as to support the story and deliver enjoyable characters.

The pace was okay too, though the ending was rushed and could have been handled better.

Where do I begin? This movie won a People's Choice nomination in 2010 for BEST FAMILY MOVIE!?! Say what? I am the last person in the world to want movies that reflect some artificial moral code - but this is misleading to parents who do feel that way. Lane, our heroine, lies, cheats, betrays her friend, has sex with someone she hardly knows repeatedly - and is really turned on by make-up sex. Personally, I think that's cool - but just a very odd heroine for a family movie.

That said, to me the movie itself played a lot like Sex and the City for the 20-something set. There is good girlfriend chemistry between the photographer, model, and Lane as they play cards with male torsos, etc., and joke about their guilty pleasures. As a movie, I found this sporadically amusing with a few of the photographer bits and one office bit very funny. I thought the friends did an excellent job doing their things. The film was well-paced, and there was some funny dialog. The acting in most of the supporting roles is fine - especially the affable Tom who must've had to work hard to say his lines with a straight face and still pull them all. Jaime Presley who plays Cosmo Editor Kate does likewise.

Obviously, as others have pointed out, the plot contrivances themselves regarding how she gets the Cosmo Story Assignment and how she gets the investment banking job are ridiculous - but what else is new in most comedies. You suspend your disbelief to accept the premise. That's OK with me.

So, Executive Producer Hilary Duff did a better-than-average job in putting together a Sex and the City for the 20-something set but not a family movie. Lead actress Duff is an abomination. Even given her character's moral wavering and hypocrisy, her dialog was still written well enough, she could've been a 20-something Carrie Bradshaw (narration, shoes, and all). Carrie has certainly had such lapses and we cheer when she looks in the mirror, learns, and leaps forward.

Not here, unfortunately. Duff was engaging child actress but she if this is representative work, she is gosh-awful as an adult. Her comic timing is off; her dialog reads project more than the hammiest emoters I have ever seen on stage; and her expressions do not connect with the interaction of her fellow actors.

Still, I was in a good mood and the plastic-wrap scene itself was funny enough so I gave it a 5. Ms. Duff should stick to producing and find another leading lady. Perhaps she can do a cameo.

"Lane Daniels" (Hillary Duff) is an aspiring young writer living in New York City who finds it hard to meet single, young men. As luck would have it her roommate "Joanne" (Amanda Walsh) just happens to know somebody at Cosmo Magazine who wants an article written about dating within the business world and so Lane decides to accept the job assignment and goes undercover working for a financial firm on Wall Street. One condition however is that she can only date men wearing suits who work in the business world. Little does she know that she is about to meet the man of her dreams and he doesn't meet this qualification. This creates a real dilemma for her. Now rather than reveal any more of this film and risk ruining it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that for a "made-for-television" romantic-comedy this particular movie wasn't too bad. Admittedly, while I would have preferred more comedy and less romance, the performance of Hillary Duff was sufficient to keep the movie somewhat enjoyable and because of that I rate it as about average.