How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

Can you blame me for wanting a bit more bite from a movie called How to Lose Friends and Alienate People? Can you blame me for wanting a bit more edge when the film's star is Simon Pegg, best known for his over the top British film parodies like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz? Though not without its moments of inspiration, this film is a surprising mix of toothless satire, and standard romantic comedy. Pegg seems to be trying to make himself more into a leading man type with this film and his last one, another romantic comedy called Run, Fatboy, Run, which was not well received by a lot of viewers, but I personally liked. I'm all for it, as long as the material doesn't completely rob him of his edge, which this film almost succeeds at doing.

The movie is inspired by an autobiographical novel of the same name by Toby Young, where he wrote about his experiences working for Vanity Fair magazine. But to be fair, the movie seems more inspired by Hollywood conventions. Every time it tries to be just a little smart, or throw in some elements of sharp satire, the film reigns itself in, and goes right back to the romantic subplot that seems to have been added by Hollywood executives. It's like the filmmakers are afraid to offend, and that's not the approach you want to take with a title like How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. The movie seems to want to do for magazines and celebrity journalism what The Devil Wears Prada did for the fashion industry a few years ago. The problem is, there's no real villain, like Meryl Streep's character in Prada. There's nothing that truly seems shocking, and never any sense that the lid is being blown off. The novel apparently was very open and candid, while the film adaptation has been sanitized for our protection.

Despite being based on a true story, all the names in the film have been changed. As it opens, Sidney Young (Simon Pegg) is a writer for a struggling self-published independent magazine that takes a satiric and biting look at the world of celebrities. We see his tricks on the red carpet for getting into the celebrity parties, such as showing up with a pig, and telling the guard at the velvet rope that it's the star of the Babe movies. He gets a call from Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges), the publisher of Sharps magazine, a leading New York celebrity periodical. He sees something in Sidney's work that reminds Clayton of his early years of journalism, and asks him to fly out to New York and join his staff. When Sidney arrives, he finds the staff not very welcoming to his brand of humor or his style of writing. He wants to expose Hollywood celebrities for the pompous and spoiled twits he believes they really are, whereas everyone on the staff is more interested in kissing ass and keeping up appearances. He makes a lot of enemies on the job, including the boss of his department (Danny Huston), who treats him as if he has no talent despite the fact his boss steals his ideas for upcoming articles, and a publicist (Gillian Anderson) for one of the biggest rising celebrities in Hollywood - a sexy young starlet named Sophie Maes (Megan Fox).

Unfortunately, the movie doesn't seem as interested as it should in offending Hollywood or the writers who are paid to gush or gossip about them. There are some fleeting moments that hint at that kind of movie, such as when Sidney sees an ad on TV for Sophie Maes' next film project - An Oscar bait epic drama about the life of Mother Theresa, with Sophie in the title role. Even when it tries to step on some toes, it's not for very long, almost like the film is apologizing for its own rude behavior. Much of this apology comes from a romantic subplot, which unfortunately takes center stage much more frequently as it goes on. The only person at Sharps who respects or even talks to Sidney is a girl in his department named Alison Olsen (Kirsten Dunst). She initially hates Sidney and his often boorish behavior as much as everyone else on the staff, but she soon starts to warm up to him. The subplot is riddled with cliches, and seems to have been written straight from a textbook from a "Romantic Comedy 101" course. There should be no surprises to anyone when the movie starts to ask the question will Sidney embrace the shallow lifestyle of Hollywood celebrities, or will he board that plane to fly off and be with Alison?

Even if the film isn't as sharp as it should have been, at least the performances make it watchable. While I wouldn't exactly call him "leading man material", Simon Pegg does have a very rough charm that makes him suitable for Sidney. I just wish the film had let him use his wit more often, rather than shoehorning him into the role of a romantic lead. Kirsten Dunst has more experience with romantic comedies, and she's just fine here, even if none of her scenes truly stand out. Meanwhile, Jeff Bridges, Danny Huston, and Gillian Anderson are never given enough screen time to develop their characters. The movie probably needed more of them, and the edge that their characters could have brought it. The performance that ended up surprising me the most is Megan Fox, who up until now has mainly been known for her sex appeal and her role in last year's Transformers movie. She shows quite a bit of comic timing in her role as a shallow and sexy rising young actress, and it gives me hope that she could advance into something special.

Before I close this review, I don't want to give the impression that I hated this movie. There's actually a couple funny moments, though they brought out more of a mild chuckle than a genuine laugh. The film just never seems that sure of itself, and I kept on thinking about what it could have been if director Robert B. Weide had taken the gloves off. I guess if I want to hear the untampered and unsanitized version of the story, I'll have to pick up the novel, which isn't that bad of a thing when you think about it.

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