Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Charming, a little like an Eric Rohmer film--only in English, January 17, 2008
Suburban Girl reminds me a bit of Eric Rohmer films of the 70s and 80s and other French films that takes time exploring a relationship. The characters are so well played by Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alec Baldwin that you can well imagine their lives will go on after the story ends; the young woman and the older man warmly recalling their love and of lessons learned.
Suburban Girl is so much better than the huge amount of drek in the cinema right now! If this is the fate of small, charming movies than I would highly recommend staying at home and buying/renting old Erich Rohmer, Claude LaLouche movies or if you don't care for subtitles than Howard Hawkes, Preston Sturges and the like.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sweet with a Hint of Creepy, January 28, 2008
Three and a half.
I don't know that I would've picked this movie out at the video store. But since it was picked out for me I watched it.
Ambiguous is the word that comes to mind. Gellar as Brett is sweetly stumbling through life, attached to a boy and wanting a man, editing with angst, and completely unable to make a decision. Enter a man (Archie played by Baldwin) who knows what he wants (Brett) how to get it with the usual rich, charming, powerful man ploys but with a sweetness that almost brings Ahhh! moments. But the relationship is standardly Pygmalion and the end result is as expected.
What I liked: I'm a sucker for movies about writers, so two thumbs up there. Good acting and a nice range of opportunities to stretch with illness, tears, joy. Great writing, snappy dialogue. The sexual aspect of the romance is fairly low key and hidden and mentioned very little. Nasty language is refreshingly replaced with creativity.
What I didn't: Baldwin's character is creepy because there always seemed to be an agenda and an air of deception. It almost feels reptilian at times. The fact that he wants to shape Brett is okay but it doesn't always ring true. In a scene where Brett has too much to drink he actually finds her more appealing when she makes a scene. I also found that I didn't really care whether they stayed together or broke up. Brett's family didn't come off as multi-dimensional or dysfunctional as a family of origin so I didn't buy into her childhood issues as much as the script needed me to.
Overall, I think that if you can watch Alec Baldwin without shuddering at his personal life, you like the whole Pygmalion thing, chick-lit and/or Gellar, you might enjoy it.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not Funny, Not Romantic...Just Plain Creepy, January 26, 2008
To say that I would *not* recommend this movie to anyone is an understatement. I am normally a big fan of both Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alec Baldwin, and normally love romantic comedies, but was horribly disappointed in this movie. It was such a bad movie that I couldn't get myself to watch more than half of the movie (and my husband left well before that). There was nothing funny about the movie (I did not laugh even once), but it wasn't really a drama either.
When it comes to romance, they also hit a big zero. There was absolutely no chemistry between the two main characters, and, to be quite frank, every attempt at a romantic scene between Sarah Michelle and Alec completely creeped me out. Perhaps if the characters were not so cliche it would have made a difference.
As it is, this movie reminds me of something that a 50+ year old man in a mid-life crisis would write to reflect the way he wished the world was really like. My husband's take was just a bit different. He thinks it was written by a 70+ year old man who was fantasizing about what he wished life was like when he was in his 50s or 60s.
In sum, the story line was poor, the characters were shallow and unbelievable, and the movie was just plain creepy (and not in the good, horror movie kind of creepy). Do yourself a favor and watch something else.
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