How To Lose Friends and Alienate People (MGM)
For All Peggophiles
There is just something about Simon Pegg that hits me funny. It is his everyman look coupled with his British accent and his slightly droll way of saying words. It makes me enjoy everything he does even when the final product isnt that entertaining.
His latest film is titled How To Lose Friends and Alienate People and in it he plays Sidney Young, a journalist out to skew the pompous and the untalented. His unorthodox actions in London bring him to the attention of Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges) who is the editor of Sharps, a slick magazine in New York.
Sidney immediately repulses most of the people at his workplace including Alison Olsen (Kirsten Dunst) and Lawrence Maddox (Danny Huston). But he is unfazed by any negative responses to his personality. He just bulldozes his way around the office and around the New York social scene.
He finally catches the eye of movie actress Sophie Maes (Megan Fox) and her publicist Eleanor Johnson (Gillian Anderson). It is love or at least lust at first sight for Sidney and he tries to endear himself to Sophie. He learns however it is a whole new ballgame when you want to be part of the celebrity scene you are covering.
Pegg captures all facets of Sidneys personality perfectly. He is totally believable when playing rude and crude, but he also cleans up nicely to be someone who could be part of the New York scene. Peggs comedic abilities give the movie the edge it has and overcome the shortcomings of the script.
Dunst is delightful as the co-worker who at first loathes Sidney but later comes to appreciate him. She brings a freshness to a role that could have been stale. Still it is Morgan Fox who wins the female acting awards. She perfectly personifies the screen siren who doesnt have a brain in her head. It is a solitarily sexual role and she makes it sizzle.
The movie is rated R for profanity, nudity and sexual situations.
How To Lose Friends and Alienate People gets a little slow in the middle but manages to perk up before the movie ends. If you arent a Pegg aficionado then it is doubtful you will enjoy the movie as much as I did. But if you appreciate his sense of humor and charm then you might think this is a somewhat delightful film full of quirky work.
I scored How To Lose Friends and Alienate People an outsider 5 out of 10.
