Suburban Girl

How Do You Spell "Meh"?

I've been a fan of Sarah Michelle Gellar since her days as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, even her tour of duty as Daphne in the two Scooby-Doo movies. I came to Suburban Girl with high hopes.

Based on the short stories "My Old Man" and "The Worst Thing A Suburban Girl Could Imagine" from Melissa Bank's The Girls' Guide To Hunting And Fishing, this is a post-modern romantic…erm… The thing is, it's billed as a romantic comedy, and while it's romantic, it isn't particularly comic. I suppose that's part of the post-modern thing. You can't do just sweet any more, it's got to be bitter-sweet because that's the trendy flavour in writing. It's just not terribly satisfying.

Director-writer Marc Klein was previously responsible for the scripts of A Good Year and Serendipity, neither of which he directed. His talent is definitely in the writing - the script is witty and full of good lines. The movie is pleasant to watch and relatively undemanding, but - and here's the but - it all lacks charm.

SMG plays Brett, a twentysomething book editor who falls for a recovering alcoholic "legend of the book world" Archie (played by Alec Baldwin). Negotiating her way through Archie's complicated life, matters are further complicated by Brett's father's failing health.

Video
The movie is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Colours are solid and well-saturated, contrast is excellent and the image is pristine as one would expect from a brand-new release. Klein uses the conceit of dividing the movie up with black title cards which mostly feature explanations of the typesetting marks that book editors use in their arcane art. All typography in these titles is in a typewriter style as if part of a manuscript.

Audio
Dolby 5.1 woefully underused. The movie is scored with a number of tracks by female singers.

Extras
There is a Director's yak track on the alternative soundtrack and subtitles. Curiously there are only "play movie" and "setup" options on the menu, no scene selection. There are also three autoplay trailers at the start which can only be skipped by chapter forwarding.

Overall
I'd really like to say I liked this movie, but it was something of a disappointment for me. I was expecting something cuter than this. I was expecting a bit of Devil Wears Prada (from the cover art quote), maybe a bit of Meet The Parents and a bit of any so-called chick-flick romantic comedy. What I got was ultimately as unsatisfying as that other dysfunctional rom-com The Break Up.