Review of Material Girls

Introduction

I ought to start by saying that unless you`re a (female) teenager, or unless you have teenage daughters, this film will almost certainly leave you cold. It`s a highly targeted, unashamedly formulaic piece of lukewarm froth that will irritate all but the uncritical teens for which it is intended.

With that caveat aside, my two teen daughters seemed to enjoy it to a degree. Most films they watch of this type are declared `brilliant!` without reservation whereas this one was just `good`. Not quite the same thing and there`s every chance that this one (unlike teen classics like `Mean Girls`, `Cinderella Story` and `13 going on 30`) will never get a second airing.

`Material Girls` features not one but two duffs - Hilary and less-successful older sister Haylie. So this is very much a Duff movie. (Sorry - couldn`t let that one go…). SO it`s full of that Californian nasal drone that makes the Disney Channel impossible for anyone over 20 to endure for more than thirty minutes at a time.

The convoluted plot is supposed to be full of moral fibre, which somehow seems to back-fire at every turn, as the film is about two self-focussed filthy rich girls who lose their fortune and discover a normal world full of `real people` who even have to take (gasp!) the bus to get to the mall. The fact that the girls who get real are actually self-focussed filthy rich girls in real-life is an irony that seems to evade the makers of this hokum piece of self-righteous preaching.

Naturally romance abounds too as people discover the `really good people` inside and the movie ends on a note that shows that, despite heavy set backs, the right behaviour will always turn you back into a winner in America.

The impression you get throughout is that Hilary Duff and her agents are starting to dictate their own terms to some degree in the highly lucrative world of teen-flicks and that cast and crew are along for the ride …and the paycheck.

Video

Presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.40:1) in a flawless transfer. Top notch.

Audio

Dolby Surround 5.1, with no alternate options that I could access. Not much exclusive action from the rears though so probably not much to miss in stereo.

Features

AUDIO COMMENTARY
Director Martha Coolidge provides a feature-length audio commentary that`s present and correct but which will never get heard by anyone other than her closest friends and family - and dutiful DVD reviewers. Teens will be bored rigid and adults will already be cursing the loss of 90 minutes watching the movie first-time round.

CAST OF CHARACTERS: THE MAKING OF MATERIAL GIRLS (9:54) is more than you`ll want to know about how the Duff sisters are best friends in real life and how the movie allowed them to really explore the world they find themselves in and …more about me, and did I mention me?

GETTING TO KNOW HILARY AND HAYLIE AS THE MARCHETTA SISTERS (9.00) Oh …and did I mention me?

HILARY DUFF PROMO - for `Pray with Fire`, which is a perfectly reasonable glossy MTV friendly video, using a `smashing mirror` effect ad-nauseum.

TRAILER - just watch this and save 90 minutes to watch a decent film instead.

Conclusion

When my teenage daughters merely declare a film to be `good` rather than `brilliant`, I know something`s awry.

This is a movie targeted firmly on female teens, and unless they are dedicated Hilary Duff fans, there`s little here that you wouldn`t find in better form elsewhere. Really there is little to distinguish this preachy movie from the worst outings of the notorious Olsen twins, though that may be seen by the Duff sisters as a compliment.

There`s something distasteful about this type of riches to rags and back again tale when its principal cast are more akin to the spoilt rich duo at the outset of the movie than the redeemed individuals at the end.

It`s all skilfully made, though has a frustratingly convoluted plot, a dire Disney Channel style screenplay, and enough nasally Californian `like, oh my god, it`s like, oh my god` voices to last you a lifetime.

Hilary Duff may have been doing this stuff since she was a kid (`Casper and Wendy`) but that`s no excuse for this half-baked ego vehicle that even has her sister on the pay roll.