The Business of Falling in Love

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.

It wasn't that bad, I mean, Hilary and Michael were cute together, however this movie was similar to that Kate Hudson movie (but I think this one was better!). The only problem was that there were totally obvious thing, but maybe it wasn't a real problem, I mean, it's just a typical romantic comedy!! I loved the ending, but I knew that all the time, I mean it was obvious, that in the end Lane and Tom will be a couple, however it was a little bit fast... I loved Lane's girl friends, I mean they both were cute, and awesome!! And Seth was cute too, and the actor, Matt Dallas, who played him was just wow!! And I like Liams accent I mean Chris Carmack hasn't got accent, so it was pretty good to hear it from him!!

Where do I begin? This movie won a People's Choice nomination in 2010 for BEST FAMILY MOVIE!?! Say what? I am the last person in the world to want movies that reflect some artificial moral code - but this is misleading to parents who do feel that way. Lane, our heroine, lies, cheats, betrays her friend, has sex with someone she hardly knows repeatedly - and is really turned on by make-up sex. Personally, I think that's cool - but just a very odd heroine for a family movie. That said, to me the movie itself played a lot like Sex and the City for the 20-something set. There is good girlfriend chemistry between the photographer, model, and Lane as they play cards with male torsos, etc., and joke about their guilty pleasures. As a movie, I found this sporadically amusing with a few of the photographer bits and one office bit very funny. I thought the friends did an excellent job doing their things. The film was well-paced, and there was some funny dialog. The acting in most of the supporting roles is fine - especially the affable Tom who must've had to work hard to say his lines with a straight face and still pull them all. Jaime Presley who plays Cosmo Editor Kate does likewise. Obviously, as others have pointed out, the plot contrivances themselves regarding how she gets the Cosmo Story Assignment and how she gets the investment banking job are ridiculous - but what else is new in most comedies. You suspend your disbelief to accept the premise. That's OK with me. So, Executive Producer Hilary Duff did a better-than-average job in putting together a Sex and the City for the 20-something set but not a family movie. Lead actress Duff is an abomination. Even given her character's moral wavering and hypocrisy, her dialog was still written well enough, she could've been a 20-something Carrie Bradshaw (narration, shoes, and all). Carrie has certainly had such lapses and we cheer when she looks in the mirror, learns, and leaps forward. Not here, unfortunately. Duff was engaging child actress but she if this is representative work, she is gosh-awful as an adult. Her comic timing is off; her dialog reads project more than the hammiest emoters I have ever seen on stage; and her expressions do not connect with the interaction of her fellow actors. Still, I was in a good mood and the plastic-wrap scene itself was funny enough so I gave it a 5. Ms. Duff should stick to producing and find another leading lady. Perhaps she can do a cameo.

Lane (Hilary Duff), a freelance writer looking for romance sells a story to Cosmopolitan magazine about finding love in the workplace and goes undercover at a Finance Company. And she is looking for her "magic man". A man who has all of the attributes that are on her checklist. In the meantime she finally hears her calling when a job opportunity presents itself in the form of Cosmo magazine. After failing to impress the editor they head out of the office when they begin talking men. There Lane has the idea to combine dating and work place. The story isn't bonny, catchy, delectable and not unlikely interesting. Just one fashion girls wanna have some cute charming boyfriend. So she figure out to go to find Cosmo, fashion editor because she's wanna hang out with a lot of men. It can be in some a lot of girl's dream but Lane, she's just go to this finance company because of just for that reason. She didn't do anything else. She just had been thinking to a lot of men all day. And I wonder why she have to put a curtain in her out-way working area? I don't actually love Hilary Duff's performances. She's play just the comedy style and that is, nothing else. Like Beaut & the Briefcase. I have a sense that this movie want to make chick flick style, but it's totally not. I don't know why I think that but I can felt that is not. At first I wonder why the average vote of this movie is 5.2/10 but now I'm incontestable understand.

Lane (Hilary Duff) is a freelance writer, interested in fashion and writing feature articles for magazines catering to younger adult women. If she could pitch a story to Cosmo, and get accepted, that would be heaven. Happily, her roommate is a rising fashion photographer and SHE gets Lane an interview with a top Cosmo exec (Jaime Pressley). At first, the talk goes badly and Lane almost gets dismissed. But, thinking quickly, the two ladies begin to hatch an idea that springs from just "girl talk". What if Lane, who is looking for a man to match her "check list", goes undercover at an investment firm? Men are plentiful there and Lane can see if any of these gentlemen fulfill her list and, then, capture his heart. So, it begins. Lane fibs her way into a great job, through a creative resume and interview. She will be working for investor Tom (Michael McMillan) as a personal assistant with business savvy. Although a few hitches occur on her first day, Lane makes it through, once with the help of another gorgeous businessman, Seth. But, celebrating at a bar later, she meets a handsome English musician, Liam (Chris Carmack) who hits all of the qualities of her list, except one minor item. Oh, no! To complete her article, she has to concentrate on romancing a white-collar gent! But, Liam is so hot, he's sure to be a distraction! What's a poor girl to do, with eligible men at every turn? This is a darling romcom, sure to please every eager fans, like me. It's fun, its romantic and its charming. Duff makes a great leading lady and she looks terrific while McMillan, Carmack, Pressley, and all of the others support her well. The costumes are, as one can imagine, dreamy while the setting in Manhattan is always appealing. Add on a lively, comic script and a smooth direction and what do you get? In brief, sheer heaven, fans!

Hilary Duff (Lane) plays this "writer" whose dreams is to write for Cosmo magazine, who gets a chance to write a cover story for the mag which is about finding her "magic" man in the "business" world. Horrible acting, stupid plot line, extreme amount of stereotyping women. I hated this movie, I don't know how I sat through it. Being a business student, I found this a slap on the face to me and for all the woman in the business world. It's a horrible representation of the business world, and women. I cannot believe this movie was even made!! I want to slap the person who gave this movie the green light! Moral of the review, DO NOT WATCH IT!!!! It's a waste of time, seriously.

I cannot believe I've even wasted 45 minutes to watch what I hate. I don't mind predictable movies, but this is just ridiculously dumb. Liam's "accent" is terrible..terrible...terrible...so hard to watch this movie because that character sucks. Further, the Liam character is not cute and he looks the same in every movie he has been in! Jamie Pressly was the highlight of the movie and Hilary Duff is quite annoying. Another annoying thing was the way they portrayed the men in the movie as idiots falling all over her..yuck. ABC Family should be ashamed of themselves for such a bad movie!

However much time and money they spent making this movie was wasted because after ten minutes through this movie, I gave up. Believe me, I tried to get past the terrible dialogue, the shallowness and the rest of the inconsistencies, but alas, my efforts were in vain. This movie is bad, I mean, really bad. The writing was pathetic and while Miss Duff may have had her heyday when she was Miss Teen Queen, if this is her entry in the "mature" actresses category, then she'll have to forgive me for saying it's an incredibly huge failure. Watching the movie, it's amazing people--women in particular--aren't reacting more. Well, maybe they didn't bother or are still probably asleep after watching, but hey, I've got time. I saw a scene where she makes her debut in the corporate world, exiting an elevator full of men and it was the last straw for me when she just gets on babbling about: "men, men, men" like a cat in heat. It was so pathetic, I just gave up. They make women look as if they can just be pretty, sabotage a test with water like they're in high school and bat her fake lashes to get her 42K salary and succeed. Please. Reality check much. Oh, and don't even get me started on her wardrobe. Some were atrocious, but most of her work outfits were just so...bad. As if that's possible in that area of the corporate world. The acting, the dialogues and the "perky me, I'm the pretty blonde" scenes Duff and her crew so valiantly tried to play off just looked like a bad version of Reese Witherspoon's Legally Blonde. It should also be pointed out that for someone a lot of people praise for her "great acting", Duff simply could not pass herself off as a writer, let alone a serious one. Then again, she was writing for a fashion magazine about the ever-so common love in the office drama? Not exactly in the line up for a Pulitzer. Oh, and yes, this is plot line also reminds me of Kate Hudson's How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. Not good. Bad movie, but I'm sure Duff's fans might disagree with my views. Too bad it won't change the fact that this movie was terrible. Add this movie to the list of not-so good Duff movies for the last two years. Advice to Hilary: She needs to stop trying to pass herself off as a "blonde bombshell" and try to polish up her acting instead. So caught up in trying to let everyone see she's "all grown up", she just ends up looking like a ditz instead of a serious actor. Someone needs to remind her she's graduated from Disney and her Lizzie McGuire days. She needs to start picking better roles and plot lines. Heard she's been slated to play Bonnie Parker of Bonnie and Clyde. I hope for the best. Faye Dunaway is a tough act to follow.

This movie, is truly an insult to younger women in or not in the corporate world. Lane is a superficial bimbo. She seems to think she can get just pretty much anything she imagines, without thinking about the consequences. She is a little over confident about her appearance and her intellect, which is kinda zero. And that stupid list of hers? What type of woman actually dates like that? She seems to be living in some dumb blond world. Oh oops, she is kinda blond isn't her? If this is how woman think they should act like to gain attention from others, it really is quite lame. The best word used in the entire movie? 'Flimsy' which best describes, Lane. The second she actually finds an intelligent man, who manages to carry a conversation, she gets bored. Oh god, and no one writes like that not even for magazine material. Even for a lame B-grade teen movie, this fails on many levels. I mean, I'm a journalist myself and my job is NOTHING like what Lane does. I still cannot believe this movie did not get shelved and was actually released. Those who actually did enjoy this movie, I'm sorry to say must be those who live their life's out off a chick flick romance novel. Every conversation, sounded like it was written by and for 12 year olds. I am truly sad that I actually lasted till the end of this pathetic excuse of a movie.

I found this movie to be surprising. Well, of course I had my initial reservations about the movie in advance, being a chick flick and having Hillary Duff in it and all. But still, this movie turned out to be kind of alright. The story, well, or what is supposed to be the story, is kind of far fetched, and a bit too quirky. But you get to live with that, because the actual story becomes part of the background fairly quickly. What drives this movie are the characters, and the inevitable thing that you know will happen at the end - and it does! You quickly get immersed in the characters, and they are fairly nicely portrayed from everyone involved. I actually found Hillary Duff, Matt Dallas and Michael McMillian to do quite a good job here. And I am not really much of a fan of Hillary Duff, but she pulled this one off nicely enough. Of course, this sassy kind of romantic movie is intended to a female teen audience, and if you fall into that category, this movie would go straight home with you. I found the movie, however, to be fairly entertaining, though it is not a movie I will watch a second time around. For a movie of this caliber, it is not too shabby, though it is sassy!