TMG Scale 7.0
Starring Leighton Meester, Selena Gomez, Andy MacDowell, Katie Cassidy
A bit too sweet and sappy at times but genuinely fun and entertaining. A perfect match up for a week with Larry Crowne. Not an epic motion picture or Oscar material, but a refreshing story of three young women trying to fly their freak flag and find out who they really are one week in Europe. No special effect, super hero, alien or F-bomb was dropped in on this film. In a packed cinema, I was one of only two men there.
Meg (Meester), Emma (Cassidy) and Grace (Gomez) run off to Paris for a dream vacation that goes south. By chance, Grace is mistaken for for “Cordelia Winthrop Scott” a British heiress (read Paris Hilton type) and all three are jetted away to Monte Carlo for a charity fundraiser. They decide to just go along with it and indulge themselves. he fun of the impersonation and living the high life are great. Each finds a romance interest. Ultimately, reality and the real Cordelia finally catch up with them.
This is essentially a family friendly Disney Film. It is a fairy tale —-a fantasy movie for young girls. Meester and Cassidy hardly look like recent high school graduates. They appear and are in fact, much older. Gomez looks more like 14 so the fairy tale looks a bit out of whack from the get go. All said, these are technical issues and forgiveable cinematic errors. Meester seemed the most out of place to me — this was a step down from her roles in Roommate (2011), Date Night (2010)and certainly her top notch role in Country Strong (2010).
Meg is the most attractive of all three characters in many ways despite being dumb enough to put, and then leave, a multi million dollar diamond necklace in a back pac on a Vespa. It seemed a more bone-headed move fitting of Emma(Cassidy, the blonde). We ultimately learn that the police in France don’t care if you impersonate someone, steal a diamond necklace as long as you return it, or if you tie someone to a chair and gag them as long as a charity auction benefits. Oh well, who really cares? It is just a silly little movie at the end of the day.
The nice thing is that this movie moves along at a nice clip and is entertaining at a very simple level. It is a movie a mom can take their daughter too and go out for ice cream afterwards. Dad will even enjoy it if he gets dragged along.