Beauty & the Briefcase (2010)

"Lane Daniels" (Hillary Duff) is an aspiring young writer living in New York City who finds it hard to meet single, young men. As luck would have it her roommate "Joanne" (Amanda Walsh) just happens to know somebody at Cosmo Magazine who wants an article written about dating within the business world and so Lane decides to accept the job assignment and goes undercover working for a financial firm on Wall Street. One condition however is that she can only date men wearing suits who work in the business world. Little does she know that she is about to meet the man of her dreams and he doesn't meet this qualification. This creates a real dilemma for her. Now rather than reveal any more of this film and risk ruining it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that for a "made-for-television" romantic-comedy this particular movie wasn't too bad. Admittedly, while I would have preferred more comedy and less romance, the performance of Hillary Duff was sufficient to keep the movie somewhat enjoyable and because of that I rate it as about average.

Well. Let's see. Can I start by asking the question: Who the heck is this movie supposed to be for? It might have worked as a family film for its simple, contrived plot that could never happen and doesn't make any sense whatsoever. But that doesn't work because of the sexual content and swearing. Or it might have worked as a fun, romantic comedy for general movie audiences. But that doesn't work because of the simple, contrived plot that could never happen and doesn't make sense. It's actually generally insulting to general movie audiences. In general.Oh, man. From start to finish. This one's got it all. Terrible dialog, shallow, one-dimensional characters, gratuitous use of narration, slow, ridiculous exposition, and enough awkward moments to make you glance at the person next to you with eyebrows raised and going "WHAT?" or "SERIOUSLY?" every other minute. I would even be willing to forgive all of that. All of it. If they'd given us a character we could root for. Hilary Duff is pretty. But in this movie, she plays someone who is a shallow, petty, superficial LIAR that--for some reason--everyone just LOVES. She does no work to get to where she is (a job she lies to get, is in no way qualified to do, and repeatedly fails at) but, because the plot calls for it, suddenly she's the one saving the day and being inexplicably skilled at solving problems she would have no knowledge of how to solve (her "solutions" are absurd by the way). She was jealous from the get go, even of her friends. Self- absorbed. Cared for no one. Expected all men and the universe to grant her her desires of whatever the heck she thought love was--because she thought she deserved it. It's actually pretty disturbing and disappointing for all of mankind that anyone thought this character was someone audiences could really get behind. I kind of wanted to call her parents or something. And shoot. I'm only twenty four. Whatever. It was frustrating. And abysmal. And, in its own teeth- grinding way, hilarious (accidentally of course). I mean, I didn't think I'd ever say this, but if you're looking for something of better quality, go to the Hallmark Channel. For crying out loud. You will literally find films of better quality than this little piece on the Hallmark Channel during any season at any time of day or night. Or, really, go watch any segment of Sesame Street. I have seen more drama, meaning, depth of character, and believability on Sesame Street. In the 90s. When I was a small child.

(Plot) A freelance writer delves for romance and delivers a story to the Cosmopolitan Magazine about finding true love in the workplace area. She decides to go undercover to find out what it takes at a finance company I actually didn't mind it for what it was. With a title like Beauty & The Briefcase; what do people expect?! Hilary Duff has had a bit of a polarizing experience when it comes to movies. I've always liked Hilary. She's absolutely adorable, and manages to overcome weak scripts with pizazz a lot of the time, and here is no different. This is a made for T.V film, so it's not all that great. But watching Hilary Duff strut her stuff was very enjoyable to watch. Yeah. I dig her, sue me. The only thing that got on my nerves was her constant use of the word "Magic Man" Will I ever find my magic man? They overdid that whole thing in my opinion, and it got a bit repetitive, but that's a minor carp. The rest of the cast do what they have to do adequatelyFinal Thoughts: See it for Hilary Duff. She is the sole reason as to why this movie is fairly enjoyable. It's cute and innocuous stuff that will put a smile on your face if you manage to groove to the plot. Worth a look5.5/10

I never though of Hillary Duff as an Oscar nominee, but I was surprised that she would have stooped so low as to accept this role. This is a movie that tries to be funny, light-hearted and cute, and fails miserably. While I wasn't expecting anything deep, and in fact only watched it because I knew it would be a fluff-piece, I was appalled by the shallowness, and bad writing, and the overall implausibility of the story. Will someone tell me how Duff's character was even hired to work in a serious office environment, not to mentioned manage not to get fired on her first day, as she was obviously out of her depth. And then don't get me started on the love story aspect of the film. She barely has time to develop feelings for her boss because she's distracted by two other guys, and then we're supposed to believe that she somehow falls for him in the last five minutes of the movie. I'm disappointed because the actors weren't that bad, but the writer didn't give them anything to work with.