Beauty & the Briefcase

This movie, is truly an insult to younger women in or not in the corporate world. Lane is a superficial bimbo. She seems to think she can get just pretty much anything she imagines, without thinking about the consequences. She is a little over confident about her appearance and her intellect, which is kinda zero. And that stupid list of hers? What type of woman actually dates like that? She seems to be living in some dumb blond world. Oh oops, she is kinda blond isn't her? If this is how woman think they should act like to gain attention from others, it really is quite lame. The best word used in the entire movie? 'Flimsy' which best describes, Lane. The second she actually finds an intelligent man, who manages to carry a conversation, she gets bored. Oh god, and no one writes like that not even for magazine material.

Even for a lame B-grade teen movie, this fails on many levels. I mean, I'm a journalist myself and my job is NOTHING like what Lane does. I still cannot believe this movie did not get shelved and was actually released. Those who actually did enjoy this movie, I'm sorry to say must be those who live their life's out off a chick flick romance novel.

Every conversation, sounded like it was written by and for 12 year olds. I am truly sad that I actually lasted till the end of this pathetic excuse of a movie.

Lame gets what lame wants. The result is this film. I guess lame is an understatement, but I fare poorly in grammar. So pardon me.

I wouldn't even call it a chick flick, because it is not. It is much lamer, cheesier, and uninteresting. Miss Congeniality is a chick flick, even Confessions of a Shopaholic is a chick flick, but this film is just not. This film is an epic failure! I tried to be very subjective, meaning to say that I tried not to link her with her previous acting in Lizzie McGuire. But try as I might, I just can't help it. This film smacks of that Lizzie McGuire that Hillary Duff just can't shake off her acting. I watched her previous film, According to Greta and I liked it the film because she do away from her usual acting, but in this film, she is the exact copy of her acting in Lizzie McGuire.

I am very disappointed in this film, with the lack of substance, and sans creativity. A two is the best, and it solely based on the lead actor who managed to pull up something to salvage points for this otherwise abominable film.

This TV movie is a cross between Sex and the City, Legally Blonde and Bridget Jones Diary.

Hilary Duff gets hired by Cosmopolitan magazine to write an article about finding true love by finding the right man in the corporate workplace. Duff goes undercover at a finance company. However she is unqualified to be a PA, she has lied in her CV, acts like a 16 year old high school student and it's a wonder that she has not been fired on her first day.

Like Legally Blonde her charm sees her through but the film has a shallow and silly premise. There is a side plot where she is attracted to a British executive and her boss is uptight but has plans to save the company money by going green.

Its an unashamed and cynical chick flick aimed at younger females and even they would think its too far fetched.

Wow...bad as bad can get on a ROMCOM.

I don't know how to write this without actually using a grand host of swear words to try to conjure up images of how stupid and retarded and insane this entire premise and development and production actually was.

Not a fan of many romantic comedies, this certainly has to be at the bottom of the pile.

Even for MADE FOR TELEVISION, this was on a low scale presence of pure absurdity and stupidity combined.

Oh...what some people will sit through on a rainy day, so as not to get wet leaving the house. That was me...too lazy to step outside my door and have rain fall on my head...

Well I had to suffer somehow...and to watch this only made me want to get soaked instead.

This was stupid from 2 minutes in, till the end...and hopefully I will be a touch smarter the next time something like this comes my way.

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.